82 





Class 
Book. 



W-5' 



LIFE v^?^-/| 






ROGER WILLIAMS, 



lARLIEST LEGISLATOR AND TRTJE CHAMPION FOR A FULL 
AND ABSOLUTE LIBERTY OF CONSCIENCE. 



BY ROMEO ELTON, D.D., E.R.P.S., 

FELLOW OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF NORTHERN ANTIQUARIES, ETC. ETC. 



"HUMANI JURIS ET NATURAJ>IS POTESTATIS EST UNICUIQUE QUOD PUT A- 
VERIT COLERE : NEC ALII OBEST AUT PRODEST ALTERIUS RELIGIO. SED 
NEC RELIGIONIS EST, COGERE RELIGIONEM, QU^ SPONTE SUSCIPI DEBEAT, 

NON yi."—Tertullian. 




LONDON : 
ALBERT COCKSHAW, 41, LUDGATE HILL 

AND ALL BOOKSELLERS, 



■U)n5 



i 



LONDON : 
MIALL AND COCKSHAW, PRINTERS, HORSE-SHOE COURT, LTJDGATE HILL. 



PREFACE. 



In New England, the name of Roger Williams is now 
a household word. As one of the earliest advocates, 
and the first legislator of religious liberty, his fame 
has recently been more widely diffused. An admirable 
poem, by Judge Durfee, entitled " Roger Williams in 
Banishment," was reprinted in this country in 1840, 
and in 1848 Williams's " Bloudy Tenent of Persecution 
Discussed " was published by the Hanserd Knollys 
Society, with a biographical introduction by the able 
' ditor, E. B. Underbill, Esq. But, until now, no ex- 
nded life of Williams has appeared in England. 

In describing the conduct of this extraordinary man, 
as well as that of his persecutors^ truth has compelled 
the Author sometimes to censure where he would gladly 
praise, but he has endeavoured to maintain the strictest 
impartiality. The spirit of Williams was eminently 
catholic ; and his name and memory are the property, 
not of a single denomination, but of the whole Christian 
world. 

In preparing the present volume, the writer has 
spared no pains to obtain information from every source, 
whether contained in MSS. or printed works, and many 
facts relative to Williams's early life are now for the 



iv PREFACE. 

first time presented to the public. He is happy here 
to ofier his acknowledgments to Lord H. Vane, and to 
several clergymen and literary gentlemen, for courteous 
replies to his inquiries, and for some valuable facts. 

A Memoir of Roger Williams was published in the 
United States in 1834, by Professor Knowles. It is a 
work of great research, and very useful for reference, 
but too much encumbered with documents, and too 
minute in its local details, to interest English readers. 
To this volume the writer is largely indebted. 

In the numerous extracts given from the manuscripts 
of Williams, no alteration has been made, except 
to modernize the orthography, and to correct the 
punctuation when necessary to render his meaning 
more perspicuous. 

No portrait of Williams is known to exist. One, 
indeed, has been published in the United States, pur- 
porting to be such, but it is spurious, being, with slight 
alterations, the likeness of Benjamin Franklin, which 
appeared in an edition of his works printed in Phila- 
delphia about half a century ago. 

At a crisis when the public mind, in this and other 
countries, is so strongly excited on questions of civil 
and religious liberty, the great principle advocated by 
Roger Williams — that civil rulers have no authority to 
prescribe, enjoin, or regulate religious belief — demands 
the most serious consideration of every church and of 
every government. 

April, 1852. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Preface iii 



CHAPTER I. 

Historical Notice of the First Settlements of New England — Opinions 
of the Puritans on Ecclesiastical Affairs 1 



CHAPTER n. 

Early Life of Williams— His Education at Salters' Hall— Studies at 
Oxford— Is admitted to Orders— Becomes a decided Nonconformist . . 



CHAPTER in. 

Roger AVUUams embarks for America— He arrives in Boston— His 
Opinions on Ecclesiastical Polity— He is invited to Salem— The General 
Court interferes — He removes to Plymouth 12 



CHAPTER IV. 

Williams returns to Salem— He disapproves of the Ministers' Meetings 
—His Treatise against the King's Patent— Controversy about the Cross 
in the Military Colours 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER V. 

rAQE 

Proceedings which led to the Banishment of Roger Williams — His 
Opposition to the Freeman's Oath— Various Charges against him — The 
Decree of Banishment — He leaves Salem 24 



CHAPTER VI. 

Williams's Journey through the Wilderness to Narragansett Bay— He 
visits Massasoit— Proceeds to Seekonk, and begins a Settlement— He 
crosses the River, and founds the Town of Providence 31 



CHAPTER VII. 

The Indian Tribes in New England— Purchase of Lands from the 
Indians — Settlement of the Colony at Providence — Freedom of its 
Government 



CHAPTER VIII. 

The Pequod War— Williams prevents the Indian League, and saves 
the Colonies from Destruction— Services to Massachusetts — Letter to 
Governor Winthrop— The Defeat and Ruin of the Pequods 43 



CHAPTER IX. 

Condition of Providence— Law to protect Conscience — Mrs. Hutchinson 
is banished from Massachusetts— Her Adherents are welcomed at Provi- 
dence— Settlement on Rhode Island commenced — The Agency of Williams 
in its Purchase 51 



CHAPTER X. 

League of the New England Colonies — The Settlements in Rhode 
Island excluded— Williams's first Visit to England— Publishes his Key 
to the Indian Languages — Obtains a Charter — His Letter to Cotton — 
The "BloudyTenent"— He returns to America— His Reception at Boston 
and Providence 58 



CONTENTS. VU 



CHAPTER XI. 

PAGE 

Williams's Eiforts in preventing a general Indian War — Form of 
Government under the Charter — Spirit of the Laws — Dissensions— 
Williams's Letter to the Town of Providence— Coddington's Commission 
—Oppressive Policy of the other New England Colonies— Persecution of 
John Clarke and others in Massachusetts— Letter of Sir Richard Salton- 
stall— Williams and Clarke appointed Agents to the Mother Country . . 70 



CHAPTER XII. 

Williams and Clarke sail for England — Coddington's Commission 
revoked, and the former Charter confirmed — Letter of the General 
Assembly to Williams— Publishes his Experiments of Spiritual Life and 
Health, and theirPreservatives—" The Hireling Ministry "—Rejoinder 
to Cotton— Correspondence 78 

CHAPTER Xin. 

Williams's Correspondence with the Daughter of Sir Edward Coke— 
His Intercourse with Sir Henry Vane, CromweU, and Milton .... 88 

CHAPTER XIV. 

Williams returns to America — His Letter to Governor Winthrop — 
Reorganization of the Government — He is elected President of the 
Colony — His Letter to the Government of Massachusetts — His Letter 
on Civil and Religious Liberty , 102 

CHAPTER XV. 

Letter from Cromwell— Williams attempts to establish Friendly Re- 
lations with Massachusetts — Severe Laws against the Quakers in the 
other Colonies— Rhode Island refuses to join in the Persecution— Letter 
to John Clarke— Williams retires from the Presidency 113 



CHAPTER XVI. 

The King grants a new Charter— Williams appointed an Assistant- 
Charges against Rhode Island refuted — Controversy with the Quakers 
—Philip's War— Services of WilUams 121 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

PAGE 

Ecclesiastical Affairs of the Colony — Williams's Religious Opinions 
—His Labours as a Minister— His Letter to Governor Bradstreet— His 
Death 132 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

General Estimate of his Character— Spread of his great Principle- 
Concluding Observations 138 

Appendix — 

I. Williams's Letter to Major Mason 145 

II. Extract from Sir Henry Vane's Healing Question propounded, &c. 
—The Charter granted by Charles H. to Rhode Island, July 8, 

1663 156 

III. Genealogy of the Cromwell Family .173 



LIFE OF EOGEE WILLIAMS. 



Like Israel's host, to exile driven, 
Across the flood the pilgrims fled ; 

Their hands bore up the ark of Heaven, 
And Heaven their trusting footsteps led, 

Till on these savage shores they trod, 

And won the wilderness for God." 



CHAPTER I. 

HISTORICAL NOTICE OF THE FIRST SETTLEMENTS OF NEW ENGLAND 
— OPINIONS OF THE PURITANS ON ECCLESIASTICAL AFFAIRS. 

In the days that are past, when men, who were in advance 
of their age, discovered new truths in religion or philo- 
sophy, they were usually called to suffer or die in their 
defence. The seed fell on an ungrateful soil, was often 
watered with blood, and remained buried for ages, until at 
length a genial season caused it to spring up and bear 
abundant fruit. 

Roger Williams was more favoured. He suffered, indeed, 
for the noble principle he was the first to proclaim in the 
New AVorld ; but he afterwards bore it in triumph to the 
sanctuary he himself had provided, founded a state in 
accordance with it, embodied it in his own laws, and thus 
acquii-ed immortal fame, as the earliest legislator and true 
champion for a full and absolute liberty of conscience. 

To enable the reader intelligently to peruse the life of 
B 



2 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

this eminent individual, it will be necessary to present a 
concise narrative of the first settlement of New England, 
and to consider the basis on which the colony of Massachu- 
setts Bay erected the fabric of their society. 

In September, 1620, a company of English Protestants, 
exiles for religion, set sail for a new world; and, after a 
long and boisterous passage of sixty-three days, were safely 
moored in the harbour of Cape Cod. In the cabin of the 
3IayJiower, before they landed, they formed themselves 
into a body politic, " to enact, constitute, and frame, such 
just and equal laws " as should be thought most convenient 
for the general good of the colony they had undertaken to 
plant, "for the glory of God and advancement of the 
christian faith, and honour of their king and country." 
This volmitary compact was signed by the whole body 
of men, forty-one in number, who, with their families, 
amounted to one hundred persons. The spot where the 
company fixed a permanent settlement, on the 11th of 
December, they named Plymouth, in remembrance of the 
hospitalities they received at the last English port whence 
they embarked. 

These colonists had left England, on account of the 
oppression they endm-ed, so early as 1608, and settled at 
Ley den, in Holland, where they attained " a comfortable 
condition, grew in the gifts and grace of the Spirit of God, 
and lived together in peace, and love, and holiness." The 
magistrates of the city said, " Never did we have any suit 
or accusation against any of them." But they felt as men 
in exile ; and a foreign language, and the lax morals 
prevalent in that comitry, induced the pilgrims to change 
their abode, and seek an asylum in the New World. The 
farewell address delivered to them by their pastor, the Rev. 
John Robinson, breathes a freedom of opinion greatly in 
advance of his age : — " I charge you, before God and his 
blessed angels, that you follow me no farther than you 
have seen me follow the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord has 
more truth yet to break forth out of his holy word. I 
cannot sufficiently bewail the condition of the reformed 
churches, who are come to a period in religion, and will go 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 3 

at present no fmiher than the instruments of their reforma- 
tion. Luther and Calvin were great and shining lights in 
their times, yet they penetrated not into the whole counsel 
of God. I beseech you remember it — 'tis an article of yom- 
church covenant, that you be ready to receive whatever 
truth shall be made known to you from the written word 
of God." 

The settlements composing the colony of Massachusetts 
Bay occurred a few years later. This magnificent enter- 
prise was conducted under the direction of the Plymouth 
Company, who obtained a patent, by which a number of 
the nobility and gentry of England, their associates and 
successors, were constituted "the council established at 
Plymouth, in the county of Devon, for the planting, ruling, 
ordering, and governing, of New England, in America." 
The council for New England, in 1628, sold to several 
gentlemen, among whom were John Humphrey and John 
Endicott, a belt of land stretching across the whole breadth 
of the continent, extending three miles south of the river 
Charles and the Massachusetts Bay, and tln-ee miles north 
of every part of the river Merrimac. In June, of the same 
year, a company of emigrants, under the direction of the 
enterjjrising and intrepid Endicott, sailed for Naumkeag, 
since called Salem, where they made a permanent settle- 
ment. The patent from the council at Plymouth gave a 
right to the soil, but no powers of government. A royal 
charter, which bears the signatm-e of Charles I., passed the 
seals March 4th, 1629, a few days only before the kmg, in 
a public state-paper, avowed his design of governing 
without a parliament. By this charter, the associates were 
constituted a body politic and corporate, by the name of 
the Governor and Company of Massachusetts Bay, in New 
England. They were empowered to elect, annually, for 
ever, out of the freemen of said company, a governor, a 
deputy-governor, and eighteen assistants, and to make laws 
not repugnant to the laws of England; no provision re- 
quiring the assent of the king to render the acts of the 
body valid. 

A powerful impulse was thus given to the fi-iends of 



4 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

colonial enterprise ; and, immediately, an emigration, un- 
paralleled for its extent and the great respectability of the 
emigrants, was projected. 

The Rev. Francis Higginson, an eminent nonconforming 
minister, of a truly catholic spirit, received an invitation to 
conduct another band of pilgrims to the shores of New 
England. He was a graduate of the university of Cam- 
bridge, and ranked among the most eloquent and pious in 
the realm. Higginson, earnestly desiring to propagate the 
gospel among the Indians, considered the invitation as a 
call from heaven. On leaving the scene of his labom-s for 
London, people of all ranks crowded the streets to bid him 
farewell. Thi^ee additional ministers joined the company. 
AMien about to lose sight of theii- native land — the home of 
their fathers, and the dwelling-place of their friends — 
Higginson took his children and others to the stern of the 
ship, and said : — " TFe will not say, as the Separatists were 
wont to say, ' Farewell Babylon ! — farewell Rome ! ' but 
Farewell dear England ! — farewell the church of Christ in 
England ! though we cannot but separate from the corrup- 
tions in it." He then concluded with a fervent and 
appropriate prayer for the king and the church in Eng- 
land, and for themselves and the expedition. 

In June, 1629, tliis pious band of two hundred individuals 
arrived at Salem, where they hoped to kindle the light of 
the gospel amid the darkness of heathenism, and to plant a 
church free fi'om the corruptions of human superstition. 

Many persons of large fortune, and superior education, 
resolved to remove with their families to Massachusetts, 
provided the power, conferred by the charter of the colony, 
and the seat of government, should be transferred to 
America. This important measure was fully acceded to, 
and on the 28th of April, 1630, John Winthrop, who had 
been chosen governor — a man whose mental endowments 
derived lustre from the noblest moral qualities — sailed 
\\dth his associates in the Arabella from Yarmouth. The 
whole number of vessels employed during the season was 
seventeen, and they carried over more than fifteen hundred 
passengers. In June and July, the fleet which bore Win- 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 5 

thi'op and his companions arrived at Salem. The fii-st care 
of the colonists was to select the most suitable places for 
the new plantations, and it was not long before they were 
settled in Boston and the adjacent villages. 

Before leaving the land of their nativity, they published 
to the world the reasons for their removal, and bade an 
affectionate farewell to the chm-ch of England. " Our 
hearts," say they, "shall be fountains of tears for your 
everlasting welfare, when we shall be in our poor cottages 
in the wilderness." Their fervent piety, their unwavering 
faith in Divine Pro\idence, and their desire to form a pure 
chm-ch, enabled them to encounter every hardship with 
undaunted com^age. Many of this band of emigrants were 
men of large hereditary wealth, and high endowments ; 
scholars of varied and profound learning; civilians, who 
had attained official rank, power, and fame ; and divines, 
who had won the highest respect in their native land, and 
who were among the holiest and most gifted men of the 
age. Nor must we forget that there were many distin- 
guished ladies who accompanied their husbands — Christian 
women, accustomed to the indulgences and refinements of 
life, and whose sincere reKgious faith gave them fortitude 
to endm-e the severest sufferings, and rendered them patient 
in their deepest sorrows, — 

" What sought they thus afar ? 
Bright jewels of the mine ? 
The wealth of seas, the spoils of war ? — 
They sought a faith's pure shrine ! " 

In order clearly to understand the causes of the oj^position 
Avhich Roger Williams encountered, in a colony planted by 
such men, we must briefly advert to the opinions they held 
on ecclesiastical affairs. 

From the days of Elizabeth to the period we are now 
considering, there had existed in England a perpetual con- 
flict between the prelatical party and the pui'itans; — the 
former determined to enforce strict uniformity; and the 
latter, strongly opposed to the popish ceremonies still re- 
tained in the church. The pmitans, as a body, at first 



6 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

desired reform, and not schism ; but when they were di'iven 
out from the communion of the chm'ch by cruel persecution, 
they united in forming societies more in accordance with 
their views of the New Testament model. Some approved 
of the presbyterian form of government, others of the 
independent, and a few preferred a modified episcopacy. 
Enlightened as these confessors were on the great doctrines, 
and on many of the minor points of church government, they 
still remained in ignorance of one very important principle — 
the natm-e of true religious liberty. Great as their suffer- 
ings had been, from the persecutions of the established 
chm-ch, they had failed to discover the malignant som^ce of 
this evil. They did not perceive, that whenever the state 
usm'ped power to legislate for conscience, a principle was 
set up which must inevitably lead to persecution and in- 
justice — that to place the sovereign in the room of the 
pope was another form of antichrist, whose claims, if not 
so arrogant, were more inconsistent, than that of a pre- 
tended infallible head. They did not perceive that this 
assumed power of the state to govern the chm-ch was the 
great barrier to the carrying out of the reformation, and to 
the fai'ther scriptural changes they so fervently desired. If 
they had been so far tolerated that they could have re- 
mained in their own land, they would, like the English 
nonconformists, have found out, in the progress of time, 
their mistake ; but when they became legislators themselves, 
in the colonies they so nobly founded, theu^ error was a 
fruitful source of strife and division. Misled by analogies 
with the Mosaic institutions, they confounded the state 
with the church, the citizen with the Christian, and assumed 
themselves, though fallible men, the power exercised under 
the Jewish theocracy, by a Divine King and Infallible 
Legislator. 

The principles of the puritans, who sought the shores of 
New England to establish religious liberty for themselves 
and their posterity, have been greatly misunderstood. 
What they meant by religious freedom was not an un- 
limited freedom of conscience. Universal toleration they 
regarded as a crime, and considered it a solemn duty to 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 7 

God to oppose error and suppress false doctrines, if neces- 
sary, even by force. While we lament and condemn their 
conduct, a candid mind will remember that the true gromids 
of liberty of conscience were not then embraced by any 
sect of christians. All parties appeared to think themselves 
the sole depositories of truth, and that every opposing 
doctrine must be suppressed. 

At tliis period, it was not the chm-ch of England alone 
that was intolerant ; even later, the Scotch commissioners 
in London remonstrated, in the name of their national 
church, against a " sinful and ungodly toleration in matters 
of religion ;" whilst the whole body of the English pres- 
byterian clergy, in theii' official papers, protested against 
the schemes of Cromwell's party, and solemnly declared, 
"that they detested and abhorred toleration." The excellent 
Richard Baxter, a man noted in his day for moderation, 
said, "I abhor unlimited liberty or toleration for all." 
Edwards, another celebrated divine, observed, " Toleration 
will make the kingdom a chaos, a Babel, another Amster- 
dam, a Sodom, an Egypt, a Babylon." 

The fii'st settlers of New England were not, therefore, 
singular in believing themselves bound in conscience to 
extirpate every noxious weed from the garden of the Lord, 
and *' to use the sword of the civil magistrate to open the 
understandings of heretics, or cut them off from the state, 
that they might not infect the church or injure the public 
peace."* While, however, in forming a judgment of the 
pilgrim fathers, we fully admit these extenuating circum- 
stances, our admiration must be increased for the fomider 
of Rhode Island, as the first legislator whose enlarged 
understanding and expansive charity led him to recognise 
the doctrine of entire religious freedom ; and to renounce 
the almost universal error of liis age. 

* Callender, in R. I. Hist. Coll. iv, p. 71. 



CHAPTER II. 

EARLY LIFE OF WILLLIMS — HIS EDUCATION AT SALTER'S HALL — 
STUDIES AT OXFORD — IS ADMITTED TO ORDERS — BECOMES A 
DECIDED NONCONFORMIST. 

The seventeenth century has been justly called, by Dr. 
Chalmers, " the Augustan age of Christianity." It was the 
age of Howe, Baxter, Owen, Goodwin, and other eminent 
divines, who, by their preaching and wi'itings, effected a 
second reformation in the cliristian chm-ch. 

At the commencement of this eventful period, when the 
intellect had received a powerful impulse, manifested in 
every form of inquiry, Eoger Williams was born, in an 
obscure country parish, amid the mountains of Wales. It 
is deeply to be regretted that so few memorials exist of his 
early history. Until now, even the chiistiaii name of his 
father, the place of his birth and education, and other 
incidents of his youthful days, were unknown, or rested 
merely on tradition. The present writer, for many years 
past, has spared no pains in inquiries respecting that period 
of his life, and he has been successful in obtaining several 
facts, which are now for the first time published. 

Roger Williams, the founder of the state of Rhode Island, 
was the son of William Williams, of Conwyl Cayo, a parish 
situated near Lampeter, in the county of Carmarthen, South 
Wales. Here his ancestors had resided on their own small 
estate for many generations, at a place called Maestroiddyn 
fawr, in the hamlet of Maestroiddyn. In addition to other 
documentary evidence now in the possession of the author, 
the following record is copied from the archives of the 
university of Oxford: — "Rodericus Williams filius Guli- 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 9 

elmi "Williams, de Conwelgaio, Plcb. an. nat. 18, entered at 
Jesus college, April 30, 1624." It appears from this record 
that Williams was born in the year 1606. Scarcely any of 
the parochial registers of Wales are fomid to go farther 
back than the times of the Commonwealth, and the earliest 
date of those of his native parish is 1694. Other facts, 
however, confirm the record preserved in the archives at 
Oxford. There is now living at Conwyl Cayo — or as it is 
more frequently called simply Cayo — a venerable patriarch, 
nearly one hundred years old, who is apparently of the same 
family with Roger Williams. The mental powers of this 
aged Nestor are still vigorous, and his memory tenacious 
with respect to circumstances which have long since trans- 
pii'ed. He says he has heard his grandfather mention 
"that the great Roger Williams, who was educated at 
Oxford, was one of his family, and that he went over the 
sea after being a clergyman for a few years in England." 
He asserts that his grandfather lived to the age of ninety- 
eight ; and that his great grandfather reached nearly the 
same advanced period. He says, also, that, at one time, 
there were two letters in the possession of his family which 
had been received by his great grandfather from Roger 
Williams. 

No allusion to his parents is found in the writings of Wil- 
liams, but he has left us one fact respecting his early years, 
which is of all others the most important. Near the close 
of his life he says, " from my cliildliood, now about three 
score years, the Father of lights and mercies touched my 
soul with a love to himself, to his only-begotten, the true 
Lord Jesus, and to his holy scriptm-es." This remark 
justifies the belief that his parents were pious, that he was 
educated mth care, and that religious principles had, at a 
very early period, a decided influence upon his mind. 

At what age, or for what object, he was removed from 
the rm-al seclusion of his native hamlet to the busy scenes 
of London we have no record, but we find him, when a 
mere youth, in the metropolis. 

The next authentic fact respecting his early history is 
found ill a note appended by Mrs. Sadleir, the daughter of 



10 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

Sir Edward Coke, to one of Williams's letters addressed to 
herself: — "This Roger Williams, when he was a youth, 
would, in a short-hand, take sermons and speeches in the 
Star Chamber, and present them to my dear father. He, 
seeing so hopeful a youth, took such liking to him that he 
sent him in to Sutton's Hospital." * His age at that time 
could not have been more than fifteen years. This incident 
seems to indicate that his parents were in a respectable 
station in life, since it is evident he had received a good 
elementary education ; and the circumstance that his short- 
hand notes attracted the attention of the great lawyer is a 
proof of his early mental superiority. 

The records of Sutton's Hospital — now the Charter 
House — fui'nish no other particulars than the foUomng — 
that Roger Williams was elected a scholar of that institu- 
tion, June 25, 1621, and that he obtained an exhibition, 
July 9, 1624. 

It appears from the register of his matriculation, at 
Oxford, to which we have abeady referred, that he entered 
at Jesus college, April 30, 1624. Cayo, the place of his 
bii'th, with Llansawell, is a consolidated parish, the great 
tithes of which belong to the head of Jesus college. This 
may account for his being a member of that college, and, 
perhaps, supported, in part, by the head. It may be 
added, that this college was founded by Dr. Hugh Price, in 
1571, to extend the benefits of learning to the natives of 
Wales, and has always been a favom-ite resort of students 
from the Principality. The records fm-nish no evidence 
how long he remained at the imiversity, but his writings 
testify that he prosecuted his studies with industry, and 
drank deeply at the fountains of learning. At that period, 
logic and the classics formed the chief subjects of study in 
the prescribed course; but he devoted himself to other 
collateral branches. He was well versed in the Latin, 
Greek, and Hebrew, and several of the modern languages. 
There is a tradition that, after the completion of his resi- 
dence at Oxford, he commenced the study of the law under 

* MS. letter of Roger "Williams to Mrs. Sadleir in the library of 
Trinity College, Cambridge. 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 11 

the patronage of Sii' Edward Coke ; but, however this may 
be, the legal documents which proceeded from his pen 
exhibit a knowledge of general principles of equity and 
jurisprudence, that would have been creditable to the pro- 
fession. Tliis knowledge qualified him for his duties as 
legislator of the colony he founded, and was of great value 
to him in his subsequent coui'se. It is quite evident, how- 
ever, that the ministry of the gospel was his chosen pur- 
suit ; for he had been admitted to orders, in the chm-ch of 
England, previous to his arrival in America. It is said, 
that he assumed, while in this country, the charge of a 
parish, and that he was held in high repute as a preacher. 
In his rejoinder to the Rev. John Cotton he speaks of 
riding together with that gentleman and the Kev. Mr. 
Hooker to and from Sempringham, Lincolnshire. Mr. 
Cotton was minister of Boston, in that county, for nearly 
twenty years before he settled in Massachusetts. The 
excellent Dr. Williams was at that time the bishop of 
Lincoln, who connived at the nonconformists, and spoke 
with some keenness against the ceremonies of the church. 
The subject of om- narrative had already embraced the 
tenets of the persecuted pui-itans, and all these circimi- 
stances render it very probable that his charge was in the 
diocese of Lincoln. 

The intolerable oppressions of Laud, and the arrogant 
demand of absolute submission to the ceremonies of the 
English chm^ch, forced him to seek that religious liberty 
amid the wilds of America that was denied to him in the 
mother country. Higginson, Cotton, Hooker, and many 
other learned and pious ministers, had been silenced, and 
Williams could not expect that he would be suffered to 
preach, for his refusal to conform appears to have been most 
decided. We are not surprised, therefore, to find him among 
the early emigrants to New England. 



CHAPTER III. 

ROGER WILLIAMS EMBARKS FOR AMERICA — ARRH^S IN BOSTON — HIS 
OPINIONS ON ECCLESIASTICAL POLITY — HE IS INVITED TO SALEM 
— GENERAL COURT INTERFERES — REMOVES TO PLYMOUTH. 

On the 5th of February, 1631, a ship from Bristol sailed 
into Boston harboui", and, after a tempestuous voyage of 
sixty-six days, the exiles vdth joy espied the heights of the 
three-hilled city. It was the Lyon, Captain William Pierce. 
Among the passengers was a " yomig minister, godly and 
zealous, having precious " gifts, whose mind was of a 
philosophic cast, and w^hose opinions were marked by a 
strong individuality. This minister was Roger AVilliams. 
His arrival is recorded by Governor Winthrop, in his 
Journal,* and appears to have occasioned joy to the churches 
of the infant colony. He was accompanied by his wife, 
Mrs. Mary Williams, a lady w'ho appears to have been of a 
kindred spirit, and who lived to share with her husband 
the vicissitudes of life for half a century. 

When Williams fii-st became a resident of the new city 
of the pilgrims, the land of hope and promise, 

" The ark of freedom and of God," 

nothing less than a special revelation from heaven would 
have led him to anticipate a second exile, and that exile to 
be inflicted by the hands of brethren. But it is om- painful 
duty to record the mortifying fact, that he soon foimd the 
civil and ecclesiastical authorities arrayed against him, and 
that the lords brethren of Massachusetts were in some 
respects as intolerant as the lords bishops of England. The 

* Vol. i. pp. 41, 42. 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 13 

grand idea that " a most flom-ishing civil state may stand, 
and be best maintained, with a full liberty in religious con- 
cernments," had not yet found a place in the minds of men, 
and received no echo in the hearts of the colonists. Liberty 
of conscience had been held and asserted, in a modified 
form, by the Waldenses, by Helwisse, by Luther and his 
associates, and by others of a former age; but to Roger 
Williams belongs the high honom- of having introduced it 
into legislation. The great doctrine he announced, when 
he first trod the shores of New England, and which he 
defended thi'ough life, was, — that the ci%'il magistrate 
should restrain crime, but had no right to interfere in 
matters of conscience, and to punish for heresy or apostasy. 
He contended that " the doctrine of persecution for cause 
of conscience is most evidently and lamentably contrary to 
the doctrine of Christ Jesus " — that the power of the civil 
magistrate " extends only to the bodies, and goods, and out- 
ward estate of men."* " The removal of the yoke of soul 
oppression, as it v^ill prove an act of mercy and righteous- 
ness to the enslaved nations, so it is of binding force to 
engage the whole and every interest and conscience to pre- 
serve the common liberty and peace." f He maintained 
that "the people were the origin of all free power in 
government," but that they were " not invested by Christ 
Jesus with power to rule in his chm'ch ; " that they could 
give no such power to the magistrate, and that to " intro- 
duce the civil sword " into the kingdom of Christ was " to 
confound heaven and earth, and lay all upon heaps of 
confusion." He maintained the novel doctrine, that the 
ecclesiastical should be totally separated from the civil 
power ; and boldly demanded that the church and the 
magistracy should each act within its appropriate sphere. 

A few weeks after his arrival, Mr. Williams was called 
by the church at Salem to become an assistant to their 
pastor, the Rev. Mr. Skelton, as teacher, in the place of the 
learned and accomj)lished Higginson, who had died a few 
months before. In the ecclesiastical polity of the New 

* Cotton's Letter Examined and Answered, 
t " Hireling Ministry," p. 29. 



14 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

England chm-ches, the oiRces of pastor and teacher were 
considered as distmct, and botli deemed essential to the 
welfare of a chui-ch. Mr. Williams accepted the invitation, 
and commenced his ministry at Salem ; but the civil au- 
thority immediately interfered to prevent his settlement. 
The reasons assigned by the magistrates for this interpo- 
sition, m the letter which they addressed to Mr. Endicott, 
are, first, that Mr. Williams had refused to join with the 
congregation at Boston, because they would not declare 
their repentance for ha\dng held communion with the 
church of England wliile they lived there ; secondly, that 
he " had declared his opinion that the magistrate might not 
punish a breach of the Sabbath, nor any other offence that 
was a breach of the first table." 

The former of these charges is so very indefinite that it 
is difficult to ascertain the degree of criminality which Mr. 
Williams attributed to the conduct of the Boston church, 
and to what extent he wished its members to declare their 
repentance. Hooker, Higginson, and Cotton were all of them 
ministers of the church of England, and not separatists, 
when they landed in Massachusetts, and Governor Win- 
thi'op and liis associates acknowledged themselves members 
at the moment of their departm*e. Many good men con- 
sidered this conformity highly censurable, tending to 
sanction the corruptions of the chm-ch and her cruelties 
and oppressions. It is not surprising that Mr. Williams, 
having deeply felt the intolerance of the hierarchy, was 
disinclined to join with those who connived at her un- 
scriptm-al requirements, and yielded to her arrogant 
demand of absolute submission. " My own voluntary 
withdrawing from all the chm-ches resolved to continue 
in persecuting the witnesses of the Lord — presenting light 
unto them — I confess it was my own voluntary act ; yea, 
I hope the act of the Lord Jesus, somiding forth in me the 
blast, which shall in his own holy season cast down the 
strength and confidence of those inventions of men."* The 
real offence of Williams was probably this, that, having 
such strong and conscientious objections to the church of 
* Cotton's Letter Examined and Answered, p. 3. 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 15 

England, lie would not consent to unite in membership 
with a congregation that still professed to be connected 
with it. That he was not guilty of the uncharitableness 
and bigotry with which he was charged is evident from a 
circumstance recorded by Winthi'op, which shows that, a 
few months afterwards, when Williams was a minister of 
the chm-ch at Plymouth, he received Governor Winthrop 
and other gentlemen from Boston at the communion in his 
own church.* Williams did not deny that multitudes of 
persons in national churches are to be regarded true Chi-is- 
tians, but he maintained that " every national church is of a 
vicious constitution, and that a majority in such chm-ches 
are unregenerate." 

The other charge, that Williams denied the power of the 
civil magistrate to punish men for the neglect, or the 
erroneous performance, of their duties to God, is one which, 
at the present day, it is not necessary to discuss or to vindi- 
cate. The great doctrine, that man is accountable to his 
Maker alone for his religious beHef and practice, has long 
been the opinion in America, and is rapidly pervading 
every portion of the civilized world. The religious rela- 
tions, rights, and obligations of all men are substantially 
the same, and experience, in all ages, demonstrates the 
manifold evils which spring from the civil ruler being 
entrusted with power to regulate the intercom-se between 
man and the Supreme Potentate — the Sovereign of minds 
— the Lord of conscience. 

On the 12th of April, 1631, Mr. Williams was settled as 
a minister of the church at Salem, the same day on which 
the magistrates were assembled at Boston to express their 
disapprobation of the measm^e, and to desire the church to 
forbear any fm'ther proceeding. This arbitrary interference 
of the general coui't of the colony mth the rights of the 
Salem church vnll not now be justified by any man who 
believes that Christ is the only legislator in his kingdom. 

To the civil government of the colony he was willing to 
yield due submission, and on the 18 th of the following 
May he took the customary oath on his admission as a 
* Winthrop, vol. i. p. 91. 



16 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

freeman. This fact deserves notice because it refutes 
another charge which has been brought against him, that 
he refused to take an oath. It is worthy of notice, also, 
that on the very day he was admitted a citizen of the 
colony, the general court " ordered and agreed that, for the 
time to come, no man shall be admitted to the fi-eedom of 
this body politic but such as are members of some of the 
churches within the limits of the same." The ecclesiastical 
polity established was a sort of theocracy. The government 
belonged solely to the " bretliren." " Not only was the 
door of calling to magistracy shut against natural and 
mu-egenerate men, though excellently fitted for civil offices, 
but also against the best and ablest servants of God, except 
they be entered into church estate." * This, according to 
Williams, was " to pluck up the roots and foundations of 
all common society in the world, to tmm the garden and 
paradise of the church and saints into the field of the ci\il 
state of the world, and to reduce the world to the first 
chaos or confusion." This unjust law the colony was 
afterwards forced to repeal. It was soon found to operate 
as a bribe to hypocrisy, rendering chmxh-membership sub- 
servient to political objects, and in its subsequent results 
destroyed the harmony of the colony. 

The settlement of Mr. Williams at Salem was destined 
to be of short continuance. Disregarding the wishes and 
advice of the authorities in calling him to be their minister, 
the chm-ch had incm-red the disapprobation of the magis- 
trates, and raised a storm of persecution, so that before the 
close of summer he sought a residence in the colony of 
Plymouth. That his removal from Salem was not his own 
choice, or the desire of the church, is evident from the high 
place he held in theii* afifections during his whole life, and 
his retm-n to that town by their in\T.tation, two years 
after, to resume among them his ministerial labours. 

Mr. Williams was received with much respect at Ply- 
mouth, and was settled as assistant to the pastor, the Rev. 
Ralph Smith. Governor Bradford says, "he was freely 
entertained among us, according to om- poor ability, exer- 
* " Bloudy Tenent," p. 287. 



LIFE OF ROGEH WILLIAMS. 17 

cised his gifts among' us, and after some time was admitted 
a member of the ehm'ch, and his teaching well approved ; 
for the benefit whereof I shall bless God, and am thankful 
to him ever for his sharpest admonitions and reproofs, so 
far as they agree with truth." * 

The puritans who settled at PhTiiouth were organized 
as a chm^ch before they left Holland, and were separated 
entirely from the church of England. They recognised one 
important principle which manifested a more enlightened 
and liberal spirit than their brethren of Massachusetts Bay, 
which was, that ecclesiastical censures were wholly spiritual, 
and not to be accompanied with temporal penalties. An 
adherence to this principle greatly contributed to the peace 
and prosperity of that colony. 

During the residence of Mr. Williams at Plymouth, 
Governor Winthrop, with the Rev. Mr. Wilson, pastor of 
the Boston church, and other gentlemen, visited that town, 
and communed with the church there : a circumstance to 
which we have already adverted. An account of the visit 
is recorded in Winthrop's Journal, and is an interesting 
illustration of some of their primitive customs. 

" 1G32 ; September 25. — The governor of Plymouth, 
ISIr. William Bradford (a very discreet and grave man), 
mth Mr. Brewster, the elder, and some others, came forth 
and met them without the town, and conducted them to the 
governor's house, where they were very kindly entertained 
and feasted every day at several houses. On the Lord's- 
day, there w^as a sacrament, w^hich they did partake in ; 
and in the afternoon Mr. lloger Williams (according to 
their custom) propounded a question, to which the pastor, 
Mr. Smith, spoke briefly ; then Mr, Williams prophesied ; 
and after, the governor of Plymouth spoke to the question ; 
after him, the elder ; then some two or three more of the 
congregation. Then the elder desired the governor of 
Massachusetts and Mr. Wilson to speak to it, which they 
did. When this was ended, the deacon, Mr. Fuller, put 
the congregation in mind of their duty of contribution ; 
whereupon the governor and all the rest went down 
* Prince, p. 377. 

c 



18 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

to the deacon's seat, and put into the box, and then 
returned."* 

In his residence at Plymouth, we trace the hand of that 
Divine Being, who was soon to employ him as an honoured 
instrument in establishing a new colony, and also in pre- 
serving New England from the merciless fmy of the 
Indians. While here, he enjoyed frequent opportunities of 
friendly intercourse with their most celebrated chiefs, and 
by acts of kindness secured their confidence. At this 
period, also, he made excm^sions among these stern chiefs 
and warriors to learn their customs and language. In a 
letter written many years afterwards, he says : " God was 
pleased to give me a painful, patient spirit, to lodge with 
them in their filthy, smoky holes, even while I lived at 
Plymouth and Salem, to gain their tongue." This friendly 
intimacy with the sachems, and knowledge of their lan- 
guage, was of inestimable advantage to him in his future 
career, in the pm-chase of lands, and in gaining an influence 
among the Indians wliich no other person ever obtained. 
His sympathies, also, were awakened for their spiritual con- 
dition ; and he felt an ardent desire that they might be 
converted to the christian faith. In one of his letters, he 
says : " My soul's desu'c was to do the natives good ; " and 
his subsequent com'se of life shows how intensely his heart 
was fixed on their subjection to the spiritual and peaceful 
reign of Chi-ist. 

Mr. Williams, after remaining about two years at Ply- 
mouth, was invited to return to Salem to assist Mr. Skelton, 
whose declining health unfitted him for the performance 
of his ministerial duties. f Some of the members of the 
church at Plymouth were so attached to his ministry, that, 
after ineffectual efforts to detain him, they were induced to 
transfer their residence to Salem. 

♦ Winthrop, vol. i. p. 91. f Backus, vol. i. p. 56. 



CHAPTER IV. 

WILLIAMS RETURNS TO SALEM — DISAPPROVES OF THE MINISTERS' 
MEETINGS — HIS TREATISE AGAINST THE KING's PATENT — CON- 
TROVERSY ABOUT THE CROSS IN THE MILITARY COLOURS. 

In August, 1633, Mr. Williams retm-ned to Salem, and 
resumed his ministerial labours in that place as an assistant 
to the Rev. Mr. Skelton ; and about a year afterwards, on 
the death of Mr. Skelton, he was elected to the office of 
teacher of the church. 

The experience of ecclesiastical usiu'pation in England 
appears to have excited both the venerable Skelton and 
Mr. Williams to express an apprehension that the tendency 
of a ministers' meeting, recently established, was ominous 
of an encroachment upon the independence of the churches 
and liberty of conscience. Wintlii-op says in his Journal, 
under date November, 1633 : " The ministers in the Bay 
and Saugus did meet once a fortnight, at one of their 
houses, by course, where some question of moment was 
debated. Mr. Skelton, the pastor of Salem, and Mr. 
Williams, who was removed from Plymouth thither (but 
not in any office, though he exercised by way of prophecy), 
took some exception against it, as fearing it might grow in 
time to a presbytery or superintendency, to the prejudice of 
the church's liberties. But tliis fear was without cause ; 
for they were all clear in that point, that no chm^ch or 
person can have power over another church ; neither did 
they, in their meetings, exercise any such jurisdiction."* 

This meeting was probably formed for the pui'pose of 
mutual improvement and consultation respecting the in- 
* Vol, i. p. 116. 



20 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

terests of religion ; but Messrs. Skelton and Williams 
undoubtedly perceived something which they deemed in- 
compatible with their \-iews of chm-ch government. 

Other opportunities for hostility to Mr. Williams were 
soon found by the magistrates and ministers. In December 
27, 1633, "the governor and assistants met at Boston, 
and took into consideration a treatise which Mr. Williams 
(then of Salem) had sent to them, and which he had 
formerly wi-itten to the governor and council of Plymouth, 
wherein, among other things, he disputed their right to 
the lands they possessed here, and concluded that, claiming 
by the king's grant, they could have no title, nor otherwise 
except they compounded with the natives.'"* 

It is to be regretted that the treatise, which occasioned 
these transactions, has not been preserved. In Coddington's 
Letter against Williams, inserted at the close of Fox's 
Reply, he is charged with having "wi'itten a quarto 
against the king's patent and authority," and it was pro- 
bably this book to which Mr. Coddington alluded. Mr. 
Williams clearly perceived the injustice of the claim to 
occupy the lands which belonged to the natives merely on 
the ground of prior discovery, and the character and habits 
of the Indians. They were independent tribes ; in no sense 
the subjects of the king of England, and his charter could 
not convey to the colonists a title he did not himself 



The " sin of the patents" which lay so hea\-y upon his 
mind was, that therein " christian kings (so-called) are in- 
vested with a right, by virtue of their Christianity, to take 
and give away the lands and countries of other men." And 
he says that " before his ti'oubles and banishment, he drew 
up a letter, not without the apj^robation of some of the 
chiefs of New England, then tender also upon this point 
before God, directed mito the king himself, humbly ac- 
knowledging the evil of that part of the patent which 
respects the donation of lands," &c.t The colonists them- 
selves bought, almost invariably, the lands of the natives 

* Winthrop, vol. i. p. 122. 

t Reply to Cotton on the " Bloudy Tenent," pp. 276, 277. 



LIFE OF ROGEE WILLIAMS. 21 

for such compensation as satisfied tlie Indians, thus acting 
on the very principle Williams advocated. Cotton Mather 
asserts, that, " notwithstanding the patent which they had 
for the country, they fairly purchased of the natives the 
several tracts of land which they afterwards possessed."* 

President Dwight observes that, " exclusively of the 
country of the Pequods, the inhabitants of Connecticut 
bought, unless I am deceived, every inch of gromid con- 
tained within that colony, of its native proprietors. The 
people of Rhode Island, Plymouth, Massachusetts, and 
New Hampshire, proceeded wholly in the same eqiutable 
manner. Until Philip's war, in 1675, not a single foot of 
ground was claimed or occupied by the colonists on any 
other score but that of fair purchase."! These facts are 
highly honourable to the pilgrims, and Roger Williams is 
entitled to praise for his steady advocacy of this policy 
from the beginning. The king, in his patent, styles himself 
" the sovereign lord" of the whole continent, and gives and 
grants to the Plymouth Company a large part of it, from 
sea to sea, without iiitimating that any rights belonged to 
the natives. Williams, being a warm friend to the Indians, 
and considering the patent a flagrant usurpation of their 
rights, may have put upon its lofty royal style too rigid a 
construction. 

His treatise, it appears, discussed merely the abstract 
question, and was a private commmiication to the governor 
and other gentlemen of Plymouth. There is no evidence 
that he questioned the authority of the charter, so far as it 
could operate without infringing on the rights of the 
Lidians ; and at a meeting of the governor and council, a 
month afterwards, they acknowledged that they had taken 
unnecessary ofience.J The conduct of AVilliams on this 
occasion to the magistrates and clergy was mild and con- 
ciliating ; and, although he did not retract his opinions, he 
offered to burn the offensive book, and furnished satisfactory 
evidence of his " loyalty." 

* " Magnalia," book i. c. 5. f Dwight's Travels, vol. i. p. 167. 
+ Winthrop, vol. i. p. 123. 



22 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

Williams was now permitted, for a short period, to 
exercise his ministerial labom-s at Salem in peace. He was 
acceptable as a preacher; and it is an evidence of the 
warm attachment of the people, that, soon after the death 
of Mr. Skelton, in August, 1634, they invited him to 
become theii' teacher. The magistrates sent to the church, 
requesting they would not appoint him ; but they persisted, 
and Williams was regularly introduced to the office. This 
was pronounced by the magistrates and ministers " great 
contempt of authority ;" and we shall soon see how it was 
punished. 

The inflexibility of Wilhams's principles, and his deter- 
mination to exhibit them in practice, appear, occasionally, 
to have led him to extreme views on some points. But, 
whatever these defects may have been, they were less than 
those of his contemporaries, and cast no real blemish on his 
heroic character. His adversaries have brought two charges 
against him, which, though trivial, may deserve a passing 
remark. One is, that he preached upon the duty of females 
to w^ear veils in religious assemblies. No record of his real 
sentiments on this frivolous subject now exists, and Dr. 
Bentley asserts, that Mr. Endicott had introduced it before 
the arrival of Williams, and that the latter felt little 
interest in the matter. The other charge is, that, in conse- 
quence of Williams's preaching, Mr. Endicott cut the cross 
out of the military colom's, as a relic of popish superstition. 
This act was, doubtless, imjustifiable, because the colom-s 
being established by the king, ought to have been viewed 
as a mere civil regulation. There is no evidence, however, 
that Williams advised the measure, and it appears rather 
to have been the result of an inference di-awn from the 
doctrine he maintained on the unlawfulness of using 
symbols which had been desecrated in the service of 
popery.* 

Mr. Endicott deemed it his duty, as a magistrate, to re- 
move the cross from the colours, and as a punishment for 
this act, he was not permitted to hold any office for one 
year. The question about the lawfulness of the cross was 
*■ Knowles, pp. 61, 62. 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 23 

warmly agitated at the time, and tlie matter was finally- 
settled by the magistrates commanding that the cross be 
struck out of the colours for the trained bands, but retained 
in the banners of the castle, and of vessels in the harbour. 
That such trivial controversies should have occupied so 
much of the attention of grave men, may now excite our 
sui'prise. 



CHAPTER V. 

PROCEEDINGS WHICH LED TO THE BANISHMENT OF ROGER WILLIAMS 
—HIS OPPOSITION TO THE FREEMAN'S OATH — VARIOUS CHARGES 
AGAINST HIM — THE DECREE OF BANISHMENT — HE LEAATIS 
SALEM. 

Of the true cause of the banishment of Williams, no 
account can be relied on but that of Governor Winthrop. 
The other early writers were so injEluenced by prejudice, 
that they exhibit a lamentable want of impartiality. 
Hubbard remarks, " They passed a sentence of banishment 
agamst him, as a disturber of the peace, both of the church 
and commonwealth." Cotton Mather says, " He had a 
windmill in his head." All the ministers were convened 
at the trial of Williams, and they were all opposed to his 
sentiments. Hubbard and Mather gathered their reports 
from his opponents. Winthrop, who ^T.*ote at the time, 
has recorded the proceedings in his Journal. His account 
is as follows : — " In April, 1635, the com-t summoned Wil- 
liams to appear at Boston. The occasion was, that he had 
taught pubKcly that a magistrate ought not to tender an 
oath to an unregenerate man ; for that we thereby have 
communion with a wicked man in the worship of God, and 
cause him to take the name of God in vain. He was heard 
before all the ministers, and very clearly confuted," Had 
Williams recorded the event, he would, no doubt, have given 
a different version respecting the force of the arguments. 

It appears from a passage in the appendix to the 
" Hireling Ministry none of Clu-ist's," that he considered 
taking an oath to be an act of worship ; " that a Christian 
might take one on proper occasions, though not for trivial 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 25 

causes — tliat an irreligious man could not sincerely perform 
this act of worship — and that no man ought to he forced to 
perform this any more than any other act of worship." His 
singular views of the nature of oaths, it appears, were 
formed hefore he left England; prohahly from having 
observed the light manner in which they were administered 
indiscriminately to the pious and profane. In his reply to 
George Fox, Mr. AVilliams declares, that he has submitted 
to the loss of large sums " in the chancery in England," 
rather than yield to the offensive formality of kissing the 
Bible, holding up the hand, &c., though he did not object 
to taking the oath without them ; and the judges, he says, 
" told me they would rest in my testimony and way of 
swearing, but they could not dispense with me without an 
act of parliament." 

There is reason to believe, however, that "Williams's 
offence respecting oaths consisted not so much in his 
abstract objections to their use, as in liis opposition to what 
is known by the name of the " Freeman's Oath." " The 
magistrates and other members of the general court," says 
INIr. Cotton, " upon intelligence of some episcopal and 
malignant practices against the country, made an order of 
cornet to take trial of the fidelity of the people, not by 
imposing upon them, but by offering to them, an oath of 
fidelity, that in case any should refuse to take it, they 
might not betrust them with place of public charge and 
command."* This oath virtually transferred the obligations 
of allegiance from the king to the government of Massa- 
chusetts. Mr. Cotton says that the oath was only offered, 
not imposed ; but it was, by a subsequent act of the court, 
enforced on every man of sixteen years of age, and up- 
wards, upon the penalty of his being punished, in case of 
refusing to take it, at the discretion of the court. f Mr. 
Williams opposed the oath, as contrary to the charter, 
inconsistent with the duty of British subjects, and with his 
great principle of unfettered religious liberty. His oppo- 
sition was so determined, that " the court was forced to 
desist from that proceeding." 

* " Tenent Washed," pp. 28, 29. f Backus, vol. i. p. 62. 



26 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

The controversy between Mr. Williams and the civil and 
ecclesiastical heads of the colony was becoming-, every day, 
more violent. The magistrates enacted a law, requii-ing 
every man to attend public worship, and to contribute to 
its support, which was denounced by WilKams as a violation 
of natural rights. " No one," said he, " should be bound to 
maintain a worship against his own consent." 

In July, 1635, he w^as again summoned to Boston, to 
answer to the charges brought against him at the general 
cornet, which was then in session. He was accused of 
maintaining the following dangerous opinions : — " Fii-st, 
That the magistrate ought not to punish the breach of the 
first table, otherwise than in such cases as did disturb the 
civil peace. Secondly, That he ought not to tender an 
oath to an unregenerate man. Thirdly, That a man ought 
not to pray with such, though wife, child, &c. Fourthly, 
That a man ought not to give thanks after sacrament, nor 
after meat, &c." * The ministers were requested by the 
magistrates to be present on this occasion, and to give their 
advice. They " professedly declared," that Mr. Williams 
deserved to be banished from the colony for maintaining 
the doctrine, " that the civil magistrate might not inter- 
meddle even to stop a church from heresy and apostasy ; " 
and that the chm-ches ought to request the magistrates to 
remove him. 

The first two of the above charges we have aheady 
considered. The reader will observe that Governor Win- 
thi'op has candidly acknowledged that Roger Williams 
allowed it to be right for the magistrate to punish breaches 
of the first table, when they distm-bed the ci\il peace — a 
fact which abundantly proves that he fully admitted the 
just claims of ci\il government. 

The third charge — admitting it to be an accurate ex- 
pression of the views which he held — shows that he carried 
to an extreme an objection arising from the practice in 
England, where many who united in the petitions in the 
Book of Common Prayer were notoriously profligate, f 
Williams's own statement of the opinions he entertained 
* Winthrop, vol. i. p. 162. f Knowles, p. 69. 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 27 

on two of the above charges was, " that it is not lawful to 
call a wicked person to swear, or to pray, as being actions 
of God's worship." * 

With respect to the fourth charge — " that a man ought 
not to give thanks after sacrament, nor after meat" — ^it 
may be remarked, that Roger Williams, in this opinion, 
anticipated the practice of many enlightened Chiistians of 
the present day, who consider it the most scriptural. 

It may now almost excite a smile that charges such as 
these should be brought against a man as crimes, before a 
civil tribunal. When Williams was summoned before the 
general court, there is no evidence that there was any 
examination of witnesses, or any hearing of counsel. His 
" opinions were adjudged by all, magistrates and ministers, 
to be erroneous and very dangerous ; " and, after long 
debate, " time was given to him, and the chm"ch at Salem, 
to consider of these things till the next general court, and 
then either to give satisfaction to the court, or else to 
expect the sentence." Thi-ee days after the session of 
the court above-mentioned, as Winthrop informs us, the 
" Salem men had preferred a petition, at the last general 
court, for some land in Marblehead Neck, which they did 
challenge as belonging to their to^vn ; but because they 
had chosen Mr. AVilliams their teacher, while he had stood 
under question of authority, and so offered contempt to the 
magistrates, &c., theu- petition was refused. . . . Upon this, 
the chm-ch at Salem ^vrite to other churches to admonish 
the magistrates of this as a heinous sin, and liliewise the 
deputies ; for which, at the next general coui't, their 
deputies were not received mitil they should give satisfac- 
tion about the letter."! Thus they refused to Salem a civil 
right, as a mode of punishing the church for adhering to 
their pastor. Such an act of flagrant injustice forcibly 
illustrates the danger of a union between the civil and 
ecclesiastical power ! After the banishment of Williams, 
the land in question was granted to the people of Salem, 
but the postponement was evidently designed to induce 

* Cotton's Letter Examined and Answered, chap. 3. 
t Winthrop, vol. i. p. 164. 



28 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

tliem to consent to his removal. This attack upon civil 
liberty induced Williams, in conjunction with his church, 
to write " Letters of Admonition unto all the Churches 
whereof any of the magistrates were members, that they 
might admonish the magistrates of their injustice ; " and 
when the chui'ches, in consequence of the thi-eatening of the 
magistrates, recanted, he wi-ote a letter to his own church, 
exhorting them to withdi-aw communion from these 
churches. 

These proceedings of Williams and his church were 
followed by another atrocious violation of theii- rights. 
The deputies of Salem were deprived of their seats until 
apology was made ; and the principal deputy, Mr. Endicott, 
was imprisoned, for justifying the letter of Williams. The 
records of the com-t also contain the following remarkable 
decree, which illustrates the inquisitorial spii'it of that 
tribunal : — '' Mr. Samuel Sharpe is enjoined to appear at the 
next particular com-t, to answer for the letter that came 
from the church of Salem, as also to hr'mcj the names of 
those that will justify the same ; or else to acknowledge his 
offence, under his own hand, for his own particular." * 

The next general com't was held in October, 1635, when 
Roger Williams was again summoned for the last time, 
" all the ministers in the Bay being desired to be present ;" 
and " Mr. Hooker was chosen to dispute with him, but could 
not reduce him from any of his errors. So, the next morn- 
ing, the com*t sentenced him to depart out of om- jurisdic- 
tion within six weeks, all the ministers, save one, approving 
the sentence." f The act of banishment, as it stands upon 
the colonial records, is in these words : — " Whereas Mr. 
Roger Williams, one of the elders of the church of Salem, 
hath broached and divulged new and dangerous opinions 
against the authority of magistrates ; as also writ letters of 
defamation, both of the magistrates and churches here, and 
that before any conviction, and yet maintaineth the same 
without any retraction ; it is, therefore, ordered that the 
said Mr. Williams shall depart out of this jurisdiction 

* Savage's Winthrop, vol. i. p. 167, note, 
t Winthrop, vol. i. p. 171. 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 29 

within six weeks now next ensuing, which, if he neglect to 
perform, it shall be lawful ior the governor and two of the 
magistrates to send him to some place out of this jmisdic- 
tion, not to retm^n any more without license from the 
court." This cruel and unjustifiable sentence was passed 
on the 3rd of November. NeaJ, in his History of New 
England, acknowledges that on thf^ final passing of the act 
" the whole town of Salem was in an uproar, for he was 
esteemed an honest, disinterested moii, and of popular 
talents in the pulpit." His most bitter opponents confess 
that, both at Plymouth and Salem, he was respected and 
beloved as a pious man and an able minister. 

The health of Williams was greatly impaired by his 
severe trials and excessive labours, and he received per-, 
mission to remain at Salem till spring. But complaints 
were soon made to the court that he would not refrain, tn 
his own house, from uttering his opinions — that many 
people, " taken with an apprehension of his godliness," 
resorted there to listen to his teachings— that he had drawn 
above twenty persons to his opinion— and that he was pre- 
paring to form a plantation about Narragansett Bay. ^ 

This information led the court to resolve to send him to 
England, by a ship then lying in the harboiu' ready for sea. 
On the 11th of January, he received another summons to 
attend the court assembled at Boston, but he refused to 
obey; his answer was conveyed to the magistrates by 
" divers of the people of Salem." 

The magistrates, determining not to be defeated, imme- 
diately sent a small sloop to Salem, with a commission to 
Captain Underbill to apprehend him and carry him on board 
the ship about to sail to England; but when. the officers 
"came to his house, they foimd he had gone three days 
before, but whither they could not learn." * 

In presenting an account of the proceedings which led to 
the banishment of Eoger WilUams, the miter has aimed at 
strict impartiality, and has, therefore, availed himself, as 
much as possible, of the very language of his authorities. It 
must be apparent to every candid person, that the true cause 
» Winthrop, vol. i. p. 175. 



30 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

may be found in the great doctrine which has immortalized 
his name— that the civil power has no jurisdiction 
OVER THE CONSCIENCE. The object of the government in 
directing his immediate apprehension was, doubtless, to 
prevent the establishment of a colony in which this great 
principle should be embodied. But their design, by the 
interposition of Divine Providence, was happily frustrated ; 
and he was afterwards the instrument of inconceivable good 
to that very community which had driven him into exile. 




CHAPTER VI. 

•Williams's journey through the -vn^lderness to narragansett 

BAY — HE visits MASSASOIT — HE PROCEEDS TO SEEKONK, AND 
BEGINS A SETTLEMENT — HE CROSSES THE RTV^ER, AND FOUNDS 
THE TOWN OF PROVIDENCE. 

About the middle of January, 1636, the coldest montli of 
a New England winter, a solitary pilgrim might have been 
seen wandering amidst primeval forests, inhabited only by 
savages and beasts of prey, in quest of a refuge from the 
hand of ecclesiastical tyranny. He was forced to leave his 
wife and young childi-en, and to depart in secrecy and haste, 
in order to escape the warrant which would have compelled 
him on board the ship waiting to convey him back to 
England. 

" Morn came at last ; and by the dawning grey 
Our founder rose, his secret flight to take ; 
His wife and infant still in slumber lay. 

* Mary ! ' (she woke) ' prepare my travelling gear, 
My pocket-compass, and my raiment strong ; 

My flint and steel, to yield a needful fire ; 
Food for a week, if that be not too long ; 

My hatchet, too — its service I require 
To clip my fuel, desert wilds among. 

With these I go to found, in forests drear, 

A state where none shall persecution fear.' "* 

Roger Williams has left no detailed account of his adven- 
turous journey, but occasional allusions in his ( ,Ti tings 
show how severe must have been his sufferings. Ihe chief 

* " "What-cheer ; or, Roger Williams in Banishment." 



32 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

incidents are found in a letter to his friend, Major Mason, 
of Connecticut, written thirty-five years after, from which 
we make the following extracts. It is dated Providence, 
June 22, 1670 :— 

" When I was mikindly, and unchristianly, as I believe, 
driven from my house, and land, and wife, and children, 
in the midst of a New England winter, now about thii'ty- 
five years past, at Salem, that ever-honom-ed governor, Mr. 
Winthi'op, privately wrote to me to steer my course to the 
Narragansett Bay and Indians, for many high and heavenly 
and public ends, encouraging me, from the freeness of the 
place from any English claims or patents. I took his 
prudent motion as a hint and voice from God, and, waiving 
all other thoughts and motions, I steered my coui\se from 
Salem — though in winter-snow, which I yet feel — unto 
these parts, wherein I may say Peniel, that is, I have seen 
the face of God. 

" I first pitched, and began to build and plant, at Seekonk; 
but I received a letter from my ancient friend, j\Ir. Wins- 
low, then governor of Plymouth, professing his own and 
others' love and respect to me, yet lovingly advising me, 
since I was fallen into the edge of theii- bounds, and they 
were loth to displease the Bay, to remove but to the other 
side of the water ; and then he said I had the country free 
before me, and might be as free as themselves, and we 
should be loving neighbours together. These were the 
joint understandings of these two wise and eminently 
christian governors, and others, in their day, together with 
theii' counsel and advice as to the freedom and vacancy of 
this place, which in tliis respect, and many other provi- 
dences of the Most Holy and Only Wise, I called Providence. 

" Sometime after, the Plymouth great sachem, Ousama- 
quin,* upon occasion, affii-ming that Providence was his 
land, and therefore Plymouth's land, and some resenting 
it, the then prudent and godly governor, Mr. Bradford, and 
others of his godly council, answered, — that if, after due 
examination, it should be found true what the barbarian 
said, yet having to my loss of a harvest that year, been now 
* Commonly called Massasoit. 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 33 

— though by theu- gentle advice — as good as banished from 
Plymouth as from the Massachusetts, and I had quietly 
and patiently departed fr'om them, at their motion, to the 
place where now I was, I should not be molested and tossed 
up and down again while they had breath in their bodies. 
And surely between those, my fr-iends of the Bay and 
Plymouth, I was sorely tossed, for one fourteen weeks, in a 
bitter winter season, not knowing what bread or bed did 
mean, beside the yearly loss of no small matter in my 
trading with English and natiA^es, being debarred from 
Boston, the chief mart and port of New England. God 
knows that many thousand pounds cannot repay the losses 
I have sustained. It lies upon the Massachusetts and me, 
yea, and other colonies joining with them, to examine, with 
fear and trembling, before the eyes of flaming fire, the true 
cause of all my sorrows and sufierings. It pleased the 
Father of Spirits to touch many hearts dear to him with 
some relentings ; amongst which that great and pious soul, 
Mr. Wiuslow, melted, and kindly visited me, at Providence, 
and put a piece of gold into the hands of my wife for our 
supply."* 

In another letter, Williams says :■ — ■'' It pleased the Most 
High to direct my steps into this bay, by the loving, private 
advice of the ever-honom-ed soul, Mr. Jolm Winthrop, the 
grandfather, who, though he were carried with the stream 
for my banishment, yet he tenderly loved me to his last 
breath." Governor Winthi'op's friendsliip for Williams was 
manifested afterwards on various occasions, and he advised 
him to leave the colony, as a measm-e which he doubtless 
thought the public peace required. At the time of his 
banishment, Mr. Haynes was governor, Mr. Winthrop 
having been supplanted in the chief magistracy of the 
colony. 

When Roger Williams left Salem, it appears that he 
made his way thi'ough the desolate wilderness to Ousame- 
quin, or Massasoit, the sachem of the Pokanokets, who 
resided at Mount Hope, near the present town of Bristol, 

* Letter to Mason. Mass. Hist. Coll. vol. i. p. 275. 
D 



34 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

Rhode Island. This famous chief occupied the countiy 
north from Mount Hope, as far as Charles River. He had 
known ^Ir. AVilliams at Plymouth, and had often received 
from him tokens of kindness, and now the aged sachem 
extended to the fi-iendless exile hospitality and protection. 
Mr. Williams obtained from this chief a tract of land on the 
Seekonk River, where he was soon joined by several of his 
friends from Salem. This territory was mthin the limits of 
the Plymouth colony ; and, under a mistaken apprehension 
as to the bounds of \he patent, his first location was on the 
east side of the Seekonk River, which separates Massa- 
chusetts from Rhode Island. At this place, where he had 
begun to build and plant, new and unexpected disappoint- 
ments awaited him, for he received intelligence from his 
friend. Governor Winslow, that he had "fallen into the 
edge of their bounds." Although Williams recognised the 
Indians as the only rightful proprietors of the land, and 
had bought a title from their chief sachem, yet he imme- 
diately resolved to comply with the friendly advice of the 
governor of Plymouth. He accordingly embarked in a 
canoe, with five others, and proceeded do^vn the Seekonk 
River, in quest of another spot to foimd a separate colony, 
where the secular arm should have no dictation or control 
in the concerns of religion. Tradition reports, that as the 
little bark approached the eastern banks of the river, at a 
place now called Whatcheer Cove, Williams saw a company 
of Indians on the heights of the western banks of the 
stream, who greeted him with the friendly salutation, 
" Wha-chcer, netop ? Wha-cheer ?"* 

After landing and exchanging salutations with the 
natives, he again embarked, and passing round the head- 
lands, now known as India Point and Fox Point, he pro- 
ceeded up the river on the west side of the peninsula to a 
spot near the mouth of the Mooshausick. Here Williams 
and liis companions landed, and upon the slope of the hill 

* The common English phrase, ^Yhsit cheer ; equivalent to Hoiv 
do you do? they had learnt from the colonists. Nctop means 
friend. 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 35 

that rises from the river commenced the first settlement of 
Rhode Island. 

" Oh, call it holy ground, 

The soil where first they trod, 
They have left unstained what there they found, 

Freedom to worship God," 

The town here founded he named Providence, in grateful 
remembrance of " God's merciful providence to him in his 
disti'ess." It was in the sj)ring of 1636 — probably in the 
latter part of June — that this memorable event occurred. 
Here, after enduring so many hardships, was the exiled 
confessor to find the haven of rest, and to lay the founda- 
tions of a state, which should " be for a shelter to persons 
distressed for conscience." The "fourteen weeks he was 
sorely tossed, in a bitter winter season," he probably spent 
in journeying among the Indian tribes, in visiting their 
chiefs, and in adjusting matters for his permanent settle- 
ment. His wanderings were in a dense forest, covered with 
the deep snows of winter, tracked by wild beasts, where the 
scream of the panther, the yell of the tiger, and the howl 
of the wolf, were often heard. 

The following lines, by a Rhode Island poet, present a 
graphic illustration of the perils to which Williams was 
exposed : — 

" Growling they come, and in dark groups they stand, 

Show the white fang, and roll the bright'ning eye ; 
Till, urged by hunger, seemed the shaggy band 

Even the flame's bright terrors to defy. 
Then, 'mid the group he hurled the blazing brand — 

Swift they disperse, and raise the scattered cry ; 
But, rallying, soon back to the siege they came, 

And scarce their rage paused at the mounting flame. 

Yet "Williams deemed that persecution took 

In them a form less cdlotis than in men ; 
He on their dreary S'Ai ude had broke, — 

Aye, and had trespassed on their native glen. 



36 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

His human shape they scarcely too might brook, 

For it had been an enemy to them ; 
But fiend- like man did into conscience look, 

And for the secret thought his brother struck." * 

In reflecting upon Williams and his little band of exiles 
in 1636, our minds must be forcibly struck by the contrast 
the country now presents. The primeval forests have fallen 
beneath the woodman's axe ; the war-whoop of the savag-e 
has long since died away ; cultivation emiches the hills, and 
smiles in the valleys ; agriculture has gained her triumphs 
on the land, and commerce upon the seas ; schools, colleges, 
and chm'ches, adorn the banks of the Mooshausick, and 
a flourishing commonwealth e-sdnces that the broadest 
religious equality is favom*able to the progress of civilization 
and of piety. 

* Whatcheer ; or, Roger Williams in Banishment. A Poem, 
by the late Hon. Job Durfee, LL.D., Chief Justice of the State of 
Rhode Island. The Eclectic Review for July, 1838, contains a 
eulogistic critique on this poem, from the pen of John Foster. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE INDIAN TRIBES IN NEW ENGLAND — PUHCHASE OF LANDS 
FROiVI THE INDIANS — SETTLEMENT OP THE COLONY AT PRO- 
VIDENCE — FREEDOM OF ITS GOVERNMENT. 

The history of Roger Williams is so intimately connected 
with that of the Indians, that it is necessary here to give a 
brief sketch of the principal tribes occupying New England 
when it was first settled by the English. The Pokanokets 
inhabited the territory of the colony of Plymouth. This 
tribe included several tributaries, among whom were the 
Wampanoags, the particular tribe of Massasoit, who wel- 
comed the pilgrims to the soil of New England, and opened 
his lodge to shelter the founder of Rhode Island. The 
Pokanokets and several other tribes, a short period before 
the arrival of the English, had been diminished by the 
ravages of a pestilence to so frightful an extent, that some 
of the tribes were almost extinct. The Narragansetts held 
dominion over nearly all the territory which afterwards 
formed the colony of Rhode Island, including the islands in 
the Bay, and a portion of Long Island. They were the 
most civilized and the most faithful to the English of all 
the New England tribes. They had cultivated some of 
their lands, and wore skilful in making tvafnpmn, or wam- 
pumpeag — a kind of beads made of shells, in use among 
the natives as money. They were also the most ingenious 
manufactm-ers of pendants, bracelets, stone tobacco-pipes, 
and earthern vessels for cooking and other domestic uses.* 
They were a numerous tribe, and though less warlike than 
their neighbours, they could raise more than fom* thousand 
* Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 406. 



38 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

fighting-men. The Pequods und Mohegans, the fiercest 
and most warlike of the New England savages, occupied 
the greater part of that which is now the state of Con- 
necticut. They were treacherous as well as powerful, and 
were hostile to the English. The Massachusetts dwelt 
chiefly about the bay which bears their name. 

The chiefs, or sachems, of the several Indian tribes, held, 
nominally, the supreme power, and received tribute, but 
they were controlled by the wisdom of the aged men, and 
the energetic eloquence of then- young warriors, in their 
councils, where all important questions were discussed. 
"The sachems," says Roger Williams, "although they have 
an absolute monarchy over the people, yet they will not 
conclude ought that concerns all, either laws, or subsidies, 
or wars, unto which the people are averse, and by gentle 
persuasion cannot be brought."* There were also subordi- 
nate chiefs, called sagamores, who held a limited authority. 

The languages and dialects of the several tribes of 
Indians on the continent of America have been estimated 
by Professors Adelung and Vater, and Baron Humboldt, 
the authors of that learned work, the Mithi-idates, at the 
astonishing number of ticelve hundred and fourteen. A 
large proportion of these, however, appear to have been 
only variations of a few parent languages. The dialects 
spoken in New England are believed to have been varieties 
of the Delaware language, wliich prevailed among the 
tribes of that state, and New Jersey, and a part of New 
York. Roger Williams informs us, that, with his know- 
ledge of the Narragansett tongue, he " had entered into the 
secrets of those countries wherever the English dwell, 
about two hundi-ed miles between the French and Dutch 
plantations ;" and he adds, that "with this help a man may 
converse ^vith thousands of natives, all over the country." 
The Massachusetts language, into which the Rev. John 
Eliot — called the Indian apostle — translated the Bible, was 
radically the same as the Narragansett. Roger Williams 
published, in 1643, the first vocabulary of an Indian lan- 
guage, a work which then attracted much attention, and to 
* Key into the Indian Language of America. 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 39 

which we shall have occasion to recur. This language is 
exceedingly regular, copious, and flexible. 

AVith the tribes which have been mentioned, Williams 
had frequent intercom^se, and by his intimacy mth several 
of their chiefs, secured their confidence. His success in 
pm'chasing lands, in establishing a new colony, and subse- 
quently preser\dng New England from the fury of the 
savages, was, under God, the result chiefly of his personal 
influence Viith the Indians. On the Rhode Island side, the 
two principal sachems, to whom a large number of petty 
cliiefs were subject, were Canonicus and his nephew, 
Miantonomoh. Their residence was on the island of 
Canonicut, in the Narragansett Bay, about thirty miles 
south of Pro\T.dence. Canonicus was an old man when 
Williams entered his dominions, and the cares of his 
government devolved chiefly on Miantonomoh, who acted 
as his prime minister, and probably his power was 
adequate, at this time, to have destroyed all the colonies 
of New England, 

They were the owners of the soil where Williams landed, 
and made him a grant for his new colony. By a deed, 
dated the 24th of March, 1638, certain lands and meadows 
" lying upon the two rivers, called Mooshausick and Wana- 
squatucket," which he had purchased two years before, 
were made over to him by these sachems. They also, in 
" consideration of his many kindnesses and services to 
them and their friends, fit-eely gave unto him all the land 
lying between the above-named rivers and the Pawtuxet." 

Koger Williams was thus the sole negotiator with the 
Indians, and the legal proprietor of the lands which they 
ceded to him. In this transaction he acted in accordance 
with his avowed principle, that the Indians were the lawful 
owners of all the lands which they occupied, and that no 
charters from popes or kings could give a right to theii- 
territory. He says, "I spared no cost towards them, in 
tokens and presents to Canonicus and all his, many years 
before I came in person to the Narragansett ; and when I 
came I was welcome to the old prince, Canonicus, who was 
most shy of all English to his last breath." " It was not," 



40 LIFE OF llOGFll WILLIAMS. 

ho adds, "thousands, nor tens of thousands of money, could 
liave houi^lit of him an ]^hi^lish entrance into this hay, but 
I was the procurer of the purchase by that lanj^uage, 
acquaintance, and favour with the natives, and other 
advantages which it pleased God to f:i;ive me." He was 
obliged to mortgage his house and lands in Salem in order 
to make additional i)resents and gratuities to the sachems, 
and, conse(j[uently, to remove his wife and family imme- 
diately to the new settlement. The lands at Providence 
were conveyed to him alone, and, as he justly remarks, 
" were his as much as any man's coat upon his back." He 
might have been, like William Penn, the proprietary of his 
colony, having secured it by a patent from the rulers in 
I'mgland, and thus have exercised a control over its govern- 
ment, and amassed wealth for himself and family. But 
he chose to found a commonwealth, where all civil power 
should be exercised by the people alone, and which •' might 
be for a shelter for persons distressed for conscience." 
Thirty-five years afterwards he could say, " Here, all over 
this colony, a great number of weak and distressed souls, 
scattered, are flying hither from Old and New l^'ngland — 
the Most High and Only Wise hath, in his infinite wisdom, 
provided this country and this corner as a shelter for the 
l)oor and persecuted, according to their several persuasions." 
The lands ceded to AA' illiams he shortly alter reconveyed 
as a free gift to the persons who had united with him in 
forming the settlement, reserving for himself an ec^ual part 
only. The town afterwards voted him thirty pounds, not 
as an equivalent for the land, but as a *' loving gratuity." 
The following extract of a document written by Ko^er 
Williams, and dated Narragansett, lOth of June, 1G82, may 
be ai)propriately introduced in this place as an evidence of 
his integrity and benevolence in his intercourse with the 
Indians, and of their attachment to him : — " I testify, as in 
the presence of the all-making and all-seeing God, that 
about fifty years since, I, coming into this Narragansett 
country, found a great contest between three sachems, two 
— to wit, Canonicus and Miantonomoh — were against 
Ousamcquin, on l*lymouth side. I was forced to travel 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 41 

between them three, to pacify, to satisfy, all their and their 
dependents' spirits of my honest intentions to live peaceably 
by them. — I desire posterity to see the gracious hand of the 
Mo.st High — in whose hands are all hearts — that when the 
hearts of my countrymen and friends and brethren failed 
me, his infinite wisdom and mercy stirred up the barbarous 
heart of Canonicus to love me as his son, with his last gasp, 
by which means I had not only Miantonomoh and all the 
Cowesit sachems as my friends, but Ousamequin also ; 
who, because of my great friendship with him at Plymouth, 
and the authority of Canonicus, consented freely (being 
also well gratified by me) to my enjoyment of Providence 
itself, and all the other lands I procured of Canonicus, which 
were upon the point, and, in effect, whatsoever I desired of 
him ; and I never denied him, or Miantonomoh, whatever 
they desired of me, as to goods or gifts, or use of my boats 
or pinnace ; and the travels of my own person, day and 
night, which, though men know not, nor care to know, yet 
the all-seeing Eye hath seen it, and his all-powerful 
hand hath helped me. Blessed be his holy name to 
eternity."* 

The infant community of Providence admitted others to 
the privileges of citizenship, and all were required to sub- 
scribe the following covenant :— 

" We, whose names are hereunder written, being de- 
sirous to inhabit in the town of Providence, do x)romise 
to submit ourselves, in active or passive obedience, to all 
such orders or agreements as shall be made for public good 
of the body, in an orderly ivay, by the major consent of 
the present inhabitants, masters of families, incorporated 
together into a township, and such others whom they shall 
admit unto the same, only in civil thinyaP 

This simple instrument, which embodies the great prin- 
ciple for which Williams contended, it is believed, is the 
earliest form of government recorded w^hich expressly 
recognises the rights of conscience. The unrestricted 
religious liberty which was the basis of the organization 
of the colony has characterised the state of Pthode Island 
* Colony Records, 



42 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

to the present day. To her everlasting honour, she has 
always remained true to the principles of her founder — 
her legislature has never assumed the authority of 
regulating ecclesiastical concerns, or giving privileges to 
men of one set of religious opinions over those of another, 
and not a single act of religious intolerance has ever dis- 
graced tliis state. 

The government of Providence remained in the hands of 
its citizens for several years ; and the legislative, judicial, 
and executive acts were performed by a general assembly. 
Two deputies were appointed to preserve order, to settle 
disputes, to call town meetings, to preside in them, and to 
see that their resolutions were executed.* Here we have 
an example of a commonwealth without representation, 
which could not exist, except in a small community. 

Soon after Williams had obtained a spot where he might 
rest in peace, he appears to have been settled in his own 
habitation ; for, in a letter ^vritten a short time after his 
landing, he says, " Miantonomoh kej^t his barbarous coui't 
lately at my house." Mrs. Williams and her two childi-en, 
it is probable, came from Salem to Providence in the 
summer of 1636, in company with several persons who 
desired to join their exiled pastor. 

Williams had been obliged to leave the fields he had 
planted at Seekonk, and when he settled at the mouth of 
the Mooshausick the season was too far advanced to raise 
a harvest. No supplies could be derived from the towns 
of Massachusetts Bay, as he had been debarred all inter- 
com-se with them ; and for the means of subsistence for 
himself and family, he must have depended i^rincipally on 
hunting and fishing, or upon the simple food obtained 
from the Indians. But he endured all his hardships with 
heroic and Christian fortitude, cheered with a prophetic 
confidence that the principles to which he so steadfastly 
adhered would ultimately triumph. 

* Hist. Providence, 2 Mass. Hist. Col. ix. p. 183. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE PEaUOD WAR— WILLIAMS PREVEXTS THE INDIAN LEAGUE, AND 
SAVES THE COLONIES FROM DESTRUCTION — SERVICES TO MASSA- 
CHUSETTS — LETTER TO GOVERNOR WINTHROP — THE DEFEAT AND 
RUIN OF THE PEQUODS. 

We must here narrate briefly the agency of Rog-er Wil- 
liams, in averting the imminent danger of a general league 
among the Indians, for the destruction of the New England 
colonists. The Pequods, who, as we have already remarked, 
had always been treacherous and hostile to the whites, 
were endeavom^ing to unite the neighbom-ing tribes in a 
war of extermination against the English. In 1634, the 
governor and council of Massachusetts Bay had concluded 
with this tribe a treaty of peace and friendship, but no 
ti-eaty could restrain their hostility. In July, 1636, a short 
time after WilUams's removal to Providence, they attacked 
a party of traders in a sloop, near Block Island, and 
murdered John Oldham, one of the company, from Massa- 
chusetts. The first intelKgence of the proposed Indian 
league, and of the mm-der of Oldham, was communicated 
by Roger Williams in a letter to Governor Vane, at Boston. 
He harboured no vindictive feelings against those who had 
so recently expelled him from the colony, but promptly 
informed his persecutors of the calamities that threatened 
to overwhelm them. 

The magistrates of Massachusetts solicited his mediation 
with the Narragansetts, and he immediately accepted the 
hazardous commission, and succeeded in defeating the 
endeavom-s of the Pequods to win over the Narragansetts 
to a coalition. In his letter to Major Mason, who was 
distinguished for his services in the war we are about to 



44 LIFE OF KOGER WILLIAMS. 

relate, Williams has incidentally mentioned liis own agency 
in this undertaking, which, we give in his simple and 
energetic language : — 

'' Upon letters received from the governor and council of 
Boston, requesting me to use my utmost and speediest 
endeavours to break and hinder the league laboui-ed for by 
the Pequods and Mohegans against the English — excusing 
the not sending of company and supplies by the haste of 
the business — the Lord helped me immediately to put my 
life into my hand, and scarce acquainting my wife, to ship 
myself alone in a poor canoe, and to cut through a stormy 
wind, with great seas , every minute in hazard of life, to the 
sachem's house. Thi-ee days and nights my business forced 
me to lodge and mix with the bloody Pequod ambassadors, 
whose hands and arms, methought, reeked with the blood 
of my counti'ymen, mmxlered and massacred by them on 
Connecticut river, and from whom I could not but nightly 
look for theii- bloody knives at my own throat also. God 
wondrously preserved me, and helped me to break to pieces 
the Pequod's negotiation and design ; and to make and 
finish, by many travels and changes, the English league with 
the Narragansetts and Mohegans against the Pequods." 

In consequence of the agency of Williams, Miantonomoh, 
the Narragansett sachem, and two sons of Canonicus, with 
a large number of attendants, made a visit to the authorities 
of Massachusetts Bay, at Boston, October, 1636. They 
were received with much parade and demonstration of 
respect, and a treaty of perpetual peace and alHance was 
concluded between the English and the Narragansetts, in 
which it was stipulated that neither party should make 
peace with the hostile Pequods without the consent of the 
other.* The terms of the treaty were arranged by the 
negotiations of Williams, but being written in the English 
language, and the explanations of the magistrates being 
imperfect, it was found difficult to make the Indians under- 
stand the articles. " We agreed," says Governor Winthrop, 
" to send a copy of them to Mr. Williams, who could best 
interpret them." This measure was probably adopted at 
* Winthrop, vol. i. p. 199. Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 61. 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 45 

the request of the Indians, who knew that Williams was 
their friend ; and it is a fact that demonstrates the con- 
fidence reposed in him, both by the Indians and by the 
government of Massachusetts. 

Thus was Roger Williams instrumental, by the pacifica- 
tion he accomplished, of sa\ing the feeble settlements of 
Plymouth and Massachusetts from the horrors of a 
universal savage war. But his agency in averting this 
imminent danger was but a part of the services his generous 
and exalted spirit performed for those who had banished 
him. The Pequods, though foiled in theii' attempts to 
secure the alliance of the Narragansetts, determined, 
single-handed, to maintain the conflict. They immediately 
commenced hostilities, and prosecuted the war against the 
English with all the ferocity of savages. They murdered 
several individuals at work in the fields, and the barbarous 
tortm-es inflicted upon some of them spread a chill of 
horror through the colonies. The alarm was increased 
by their attack on the fort of Saybrook, at the mouth of 
the Connecticut River. The colonies of Massachusetts, 
Plymouth, and Connecticut, resolved immediately to invade 
the territory of the Pequods with their united forces, and 
attempt the destruction of this tribe, who had meditated 
the entire extermination of the settlements of New England. 
The following letter, written by Roger Williams to his 
friend Governor Winthi'op, during the Pequod war, shows 
the invaluable ser^dces he rendered to the government of 
Massachusetts : — 

" Sir, — The latter end of the last week I gave notice to 
om' neighbom- princes of your intentions and preparations 
against the common enemy, the Pequods. At my first 
coming to them, Canonicus [morosus ceque ac harharus 
senex) was very soui', and accused the English and myself 
for sending the plague amongst them, and tlu-eatening to 
kill him especially. 

" Such tidings, it seems, were lately brought to his ears 
by some of his flatterers and our ill-^villers. I discerned 
cause of bestuTing myself, and staid the longer, and, at 
last, through the mercy of the Most High, I not only 



46 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

sweetened liis spirit, but possessed him tliat the plague and 
other sicknesses were alone in the hand of the one God, 
who made him and us, who, being displeased with the 
English for lying, stealing, idleness, and uncleanness (the 
natives' epidemical sins), smote many thousands of us our- 
selves with general and late mortalities. 

" Miantonomoh kept his barbarous com-t lately at my 
house, and with him I have far better dealing. He takes 
some pleasure to visit me, and sent me word of his coming 
over again some eight days hence. They pass not a week 
without some skirmishes, though hitherto little loss on 
either side. They were glad of your preparations, and in 
much conference with themselves and others (fishing, de 
in dust rid, for instructions from them), I gathered these 
observations, which you may please, as cause may be, to 
consider and take notice of. 

" 1. They conceive, that to do execution to purpose on 
the Pequods will require, not two or three days and away, 
but a riding by it, and following of the work, to and again, 
the space of three weeks or a month ; that there be a 
falling off and a retreat, as if you were departed, and a 
falling on again within three or fom- days, when they are 
retm-ned again to theii- houses securely from their flight. 

" 2. That, if any pinnaces come in ken, they presently 
prepare for flight, women, and old men, and childi-en, to a 
swamp, some thi'ee or foui' miles on the back of them, a 
marvellous great and secm-e swamp, which they called 
Ohomowaiike, which signifies owl's nest, and by another 
name, Cappacommock, wliich signifies a refuge or hiding- 
place, as I conceive. 

" 3. That, therefore, Niantick (which is Miantonomoh's 
place of rendezvous) be thought on for the riding and 
retii'ing to of vessel or vessels, which place is faithful to 
the Narragansetts, and at present enmity with the Pequods. 

" 4. They also conceive it easy for the EngHsh, that the 
provisions and munitions fii'st arrive at Aquetneck, called 
by us Rhode Island, at the Narragansett's mouth, and then 
a messenger may be despatched liither, and so to the bay, 
for the soldiers to march up by laud to the vessels, who 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 47 

otherwise might spend long time about the cape, and fill 
more vessels than needs. 

" o. That the assault should be made in the night, when 
they are commonly more secure and at home, by which 
advantage, the English, being armed, may enter the houses, 
and do what execution they please. 

" 6. That before the assault be given, an ambush be laid 
behind them, between them and the swamp, to prevent their 
flight, &c. 

" 7. That, to that pm-pose, such guides as shall be best 
liked of, be taken along to direct, especially two Pequods ; 
viz., Wequash and Wuttackquiackommin, valiant men, espe- 
cially the latter, who have lived these three or four years 
with the Narragansetts, and know every pass and passage 
among them, who desire armom* to enter their houses. 

" 8." That it would be pleasing to all natives that women 
and children be spared, &c. 

" 9. That if there be any more land travel to Connecticut, 
some com-se would also be taken with the Wunnas- 
howatuckoogs, who are confederates with, and a refiige to, 
the Pequods. 

"Sir, if anything be sent to the princes, I find that 
Canonicus would gladly accept of a box of eight or ten 
pound of sugar, and, indeed, he told me he would thank 
Mr. Governor for a box full. 

" Sir, you may please to take notice of a rude view how the 
Pequods lie. [Here follows, in the original, a rude map of 
the Pequod and Mohegan country.] 

" Thus, with my best salutes to your worthy selves and 
loving friends with you, and daily cries to the Father of 
mercies for a merciful issue to all these enterprises, I rest, 
" Your worship's unfeignedly respective, 

" Roger Williams." 

Of the English forces engaged in this battle, Massa- 
chusetts sent one hundi-ed and twenty men, under the 
command of General Stoughton, with the Rev. Mr. Wilson, 
of Boston, as theii' chaplain. The troops marched by the 
way of Providence, and were hospitably entertained by 



48 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

Williams. He accompanied the expedition to the Narra- 
gansett country, where, by his influence, he established a 
mutual confidence between the troops and the Indians. He 
then retm-ned to Providence, and at the request of the com- 
mander, during the war, which continued nearly a year, he 
acted as a medium of intercom-se between the army and the 
government of Massachusetts. This war was terminated 
by an attack upon Mystic Fort, near a river of that name in 
Connecticut, made by Major Mason, in May, 1637. About 
five or six hundi-ed Pequods had taken refuge in this fort, 
and fortified it with palisades, which offered but a feeble 
defence against the military tactics and the fire-arms of the 
EngHsh. The Pequods made a desperate resistance, but 
theii' simple weapons killed and woimded but a few of the 
assailants. The action lasted an horn-, and terminated in 
the bm-ning of the fort and the destruction of all its inmates, 
except a few prisoners. The forces of the colonists engaged 
in the battle were seventy-seven men from Connecticut and 
Massachusetts, and several hundi-ed Narragansetts and other 
fiiendly Indians. The principal force from Massachusetts, 
under General Stoughton, did not arrive till a few days 
after the action. The battle against the Pequods was fought 
by the whites, the friendly Indians doing little ser\T.ce, 
except to intercept the fugitives. 

A short time after, a considerable nmnber of the Pequods 
were killed in a battle in a great swamp, and the sm-viving 
remnant of the tribe, about two hundi-ed, sm-rendered. 
"Of this number," says Dr. Holmes, " the English gave 
eighty to Miantonomoh, and twenty to Ninigret, two 
sachems of Narragansett, and the other hmidred to Uncas, 
sachem of the Mohegans, to be received and treated as their 
men. A number of the male childi^en were sent to Bermuda. 
However just the occasion of this war, humanity demands 
a tear on the extinction of a valiant tribe, which preferred 
death to what it might natm-ally anticipate from the 
progress of English settlements — dependence or extir- 
pation." * Saccacus, the Pequod sachem, was treacherously 

* Holmes's Annals, vol. i. p. 241. 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 49 

murdered by the Mohawks, to whom he had fled for pro- 
tection. Such was the terror which tliis victory spread 
through all the tribes of New England, that they refrained 
from open hostilities for nearly forty years. 

AVe have seen the part which Roger Williams took in 
this contest, and may ascribe to his agency, and knowledge 
of the Indian character and language, a large share in pro- 
ducing its favourable issue. A solemn thanksgiving was 
proclaimed by the colony of Massachusetts Bay, at the 
close of the war, on account of the victory and of the signal 
deliverance experienced by their general and his troops, 
who had returned mthout the loss of a single soldier. 
But the magistrates passed no vote of thanks to Williams, 
who had been successful in frustrating the designs of the 
Pequods, wliich, as an eminent American liistorian observes, 
was " the most intrepid and most successful achievement in 
the whole war ; an action as perilous in its execution as it 
was fortunate in its issue." * Some of the leading men of 
the colony felt that he was entitled to an acknowledgment 
for his constant and faithful services. He himself relates, 
that Governor Winthi'op, and " some other of the council, 
motioned, and it was debated, whether or no I had not 
merited, not only to be recalled from banishment, but also 
to be honoured with some mark of favour. It is known 
who hindered, who never promoted the liberty of other 
men's consciences." f It was not Roger Williams himself 
so much as his principles, that the authorities of Massa- 
chusetts could not endure, and the fear of their contagious 
influence overcame the sentiment of gratitude for his 
invaluable services. A mistaken sense of duty confirmed 
them in their intolerance, and the decree of banishment was 

* Bancroft's History of the United States, vol. i. p. 399. 

t Letter to Major Mason. The allusion is to Governor Dudley, 
who was particularly opposed to toleration. At his death, some 
verses, written in his own hand, were found in his pocket, of which 
the two following lines made a part : — 

" Let men of God in court and churches watch 
O'er such as do a toleration hatch." 
E 



50 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

never revoked. It is mournful thus to trace the influence of 
bigotry in extinguishing some of the finest emotions of our 
natm-e, even when it does not proceed so far as to quench 
every feeling of hmnanity in the destruction of its objects. 
In this milder form we may often see it displayed even at 
the present day. 



CHAPTER IX. 

CONDITION OF PROVIDENCE — LAW TO PROTECT CONSCIENCE — MRg. 
HUTCHINSON IS BANISHED FROM MASSACHUSETTS — HER AD- 
HERENTS ARE WELCOMED AT PROVIDENCE — SETTLEMENT ON 
RHODE ISLAND COMMENCED — THE AGENCY OF WILLIAMS IN ITS 
PURCHASE. 

The settlement at Providence was rapidly increased by the 
arrival of persons from the other colonies, and from Eiu'ope, 
who fled thither to enjoy soul-liberty. So tenaciously did 
the little colony adhere to tliis principle, that they dis- 
franchised one of their citizens for refusing to allow his 
wife to attend public worsliip as often as she wished. It 
deserves notice, as the earliest record in that colony of a 
struggle arising out of the law of liberty. 

The wife of Joshua Verrin was desii'ous of attending the 
ministry of Mr. Williams. Her husband refused to permit 
her to do so, and the little community, considering their 
fundamental principle had been infringed, was immediately 
in gi'eat excitement. A town meeting was called on the 
subject, and a warm debate ensued. The following act 
was passed ; viz. — " It was agreed that Joshua Verrin, 
upon breach of covenant for restraining liberty of con- 
science, shall be withheld fr-om liberty of voting, till he 
shall declare the contrary." We cannot fail to notice the 
admirable adaptation of the punishment to the offence. 
The husband, who would deprive his wife of her religious 
rights, is condemned to lose one of his own most valu- 
able civil rights, until he shows repentance. The inha' 
bitants of Providence maintained that om' duties to God 
are paramount to all human obligations, and that if Mrs. 



52 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

Verrin, after faithfully discharging her domestic claims, 
felt herself in conscience bound to attend Mr. Williams's 
meetings, it was a right which could not be surrendered. 
Here we have an example of the just interference of law 
to protect conscience. 

The banishment of Roger Williams, and the voluntary- 
exile of many of his adherents, did not secm-e uniformity of 
religious sentiment, or put an end to the unhappy divisions 
and contentions in Massachusetts Bay. New opinions 
multiplied, and spread alarm thi-oughout the colony. At a 
general synod held at Cambridge, on the 30th of August, 
1637, and attended by the ministers and magistrates, they 
denounced no less than eighty- two opinions as being 
erroneous. The sjnod spent thi-ee weeks in debate, and 
finished the session by condemning these errors, and pro- 
nouncing judgment on certain points of discipline. 

Of these opinions, the most dreaded were those promul- 
gated by Mrs, Anne Hutchinson, who, with her husband, 
came to Boston, from England, in 1636. She united a 
masculine spirit to a somewhat fanatical character, and 
possessed considerable talent. The opinions ascribed to 
her, by the historians of the time, related to such points as 
the natm-o of the indwelling of the Holy Ghost in the 
person of the believer, and the connexion between sancti- 
fication and justification ; and from her peculiar \-iews of 
these doctrines consequences were deduced, which she did 
not admit. Mrs. Hutchinson set up a meeting of females 
in her owtl house, and a large portion of the members of 
the Boston church espoused her cause. Governor Vane, 
Rev. John Cotton, and other distinguished individuals, 
treated her with great respect; a sufficient proof that 
she was not guilty of any civil ofience. 

The efiect of the sjTiod at Cambridge was to increase the 
asperity of the controversy. At length the magistrates 
interposed, and Mrs. Hutcliinson was summoned before the 
General Court, on a charge of heresy ; found guilty, and 
sentenced to be banished fi'om the colony. Rev. John 
AVheelwright, her brother-in-law, and William Aspinwall, 
the leading advocates of her opinions, were sharers in her 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 53 

banishment. The court, at the same time, proceeded to a 
measm-e still more extraordinary. Upon the pretence that 
the principles held by the disciples of Mrs. Hutchinson 
might impel them to distm'b the peace of the community, 
nearly sixty of the citizens of Boston, and a number in 
other towns, were requii-ed to give up their arms and 
ammunition, and were forbidden, under a penalty of ten 
pounds, to buy or borrow any others, until permitted by 
the court.* An act, passed at the same session, decreed 
a severe punishment for all persons who should speak evil 
of the judges and magistrates. We have given a recital of 
these events, because they had an important influence upon 
the settlement at Providence, and illustrate the mischiefs 
which result from an interference by the civil magistrate in 
ecclesiastical affaii's. If Mrs. Hutchinson had been per- 
mitted by the ministers and magistrates to continue her 
meetings and lectures unnoticed, it is probable her zeal 
would soon have moderated, and she would have laid aside 
her character as reformer. Their injudicious censures 
exalted her opinions into undue importance, and her banish- 
ment deprived the colony of a large number of citizens, and 
would have ruined a community less intelligent and pious. 
Many of the persons who had thus been proscribed 
by the government of Massachusetts, departed from Bos- 
ton, mider the superintendence of John Clarke, a learned 
physician, and proceeded southward, with a design to 
settle on Long Island, or upon the shores of Delaware 
Bay. At Providence they were kindly received by Boger 
Williams, who advised them to form a settlement on the 
island of Aquetneck, now called Rhode Island, which gives 
name to the state. This beautiful island was beyond 
the limits both of Plymouth and Massachusetts, and the 
adventurers were attracted by its rich soil and salubrious 
climate. Accordingly, they resolved to abandon their 
joui-ney southward, and obtain a grant of the island from 
the sachems of the Narragansetts. By the friendly and 
powerful influence of Roger Williams, they purchased of 
Canonicus and Miantonomoh, Aquetneck and other islands 
» Winthrop, vol. i. p. 247. 



64 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

in the Narragansett Bay. He has left us an account of his 
agency in negotiating the purchase in a letter written in 
1658 :— 

" It was not price nor money that could have pui'chased 
Rhode Island. Rhode Island was obtained by love ; by the 
love and favour which that honourable gentleman, Sir 
Henry Vane, and myself, had with that great sachem, 
Miantonomoh, about the league, which I procm-ed between 
the Massachusetts English and the Narragansetts in the 
Pequod war. It is true I advised a gratuity to be presented 
to the sachem and to the natives ; and because Mr. Codding- 
ton and the rest of my loving countrymen were to inhabit 
the place, and to be at the charge of the gratuities, I drew 
up a %vriting in Mr. Coddington's name, and in the names 
of such of my loving countrymen as came up with him, 
and put it into as sm*e a form as I could at that time, for 
the benefit and assurance of the present and future inliabit- 
ants of the island." 

In another manuscript he tells us — " The Indians were 
very shy and jealous of selling the lands to any, and chose 
rather to make a grant of them to such as they affected, 
but, at the same time, expected such gratuities and rewards 
as made an Indian gift oftentimes a very dear bargain." 
'* And the colony, in 1666," says Callender, " averred, that 
though the favom- Mr. Williams had with Miantonomoh 
was the great means of procuring the grants of the land, 
yet the pm-chase had been dearer than of any lands in New 
England."* The deed of session was signed by the sachem, 
March 24, 1638. 

The little colony soon became so populous as to send out 
settlers to the adjacent shores. To this pleasant and quiet 
retreat, Mr. Hutchinson, with his family, removed from 
Massachusetts. It does not appear that Mrs. Hutchinson 
occasioned any disturbance at Rhode Island ; but, removed 
from the control of those who assumed the office of inquisitors 
into her religious opinions, she led a quiet and peaceable 
life. On the death of her husband, in 1642, she removed to 
the neighbom^hood of New York, where a deeply aifecting 
♦ R. I. Hist. Coll, vol. iv. p. 84. 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 55 

tragedy occuiTed, The year foUo^^Hlng', she was murdered 
by the Indians, and all the members of her family, amount- 
ing to sixteen persons, shared the same fate, with the 
exception of one daughter, who was carried into captivity. 
"WTiile Roger Williams was generously devoting his time 
and property to rescue his countrymen from destruction by 
the savages, and assisting in the establishment of a neigh- 
bouring settlement at Rhode Island, his own colony was 
increasing under the benign influence of spiritual freedom. 
The late arbitrary measm-es adopted by Massachusetts Bay 
against Mrs, Hutchinson and her adherents drove from that 
colony a large number of its citizens, and made Providence 
a welcome home to some of the fugitives. It could not be 
expected that the persons whom the government had ex- 
pelled from her jurisdiction would entertain very favourable 
opinions of such a proceeding. Wliile the general court 
was in session, March, 1638, " there came a letter directed 
to tlie com't from John Greene, of Providence, who, not long 
before, had been imprisoned and fined for saying, that the 
magistrates had usurped upon the power of Christ in his 
chui'ch." In consequence of this, and suspecting others to 
be confederate in the same letter, it was ordered, that if any 
one of the inhabitants of Providence should be found within 
the jurisdiction of Massachusetts, " he should be brought 
before one of the magistrates ; and if he would not disclaim 
the charge in the said letter, he should be sent home, and 
charged to come no more into this jurisdiction, upon pain of 
imprisonment and further censure."* This act operated to 
the very serious disadvantage of the settlers at Providence, 
and Williams himself complained that many thousand 
pounds would not repay the losses he sustained in " being 
debarred from Boston, the chief mart and port of New 
England," and from " trading with the English and natives" 
of Massachusetts. So great was the scarcity of paper from 
this cause among the settlers of Providence, that Governor 
Hopkins observes, " the first of their -\^T.'itings that are to 
be found appear on small scraps of paper, ^Tote as thick, 
and crowded as full as possible." But this cruel law 
* Winthrop, vol. i. p. 256. 



56 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

deprived tliem of articles of still greater necessity, and 
they must often have been reduced to actual want. In re- 
ferring to this period of his life, AVilliams says, " My time 
was spent, day and night, at home and abroad, on the land 
and water, at the hoe and at the oar, for bread." No 
injuiies to himself or his fellow-settlers, however, could 
provoke him to refuse his good ojffices on behalf of the 
neighbouring colonies, in order to preserve harmony be- 
tween them and the Indians. 

In Winthi'op's Journal there are repeated allusions to 
information received from Roger Williams, respecting the 
natives, and services rendered by liim to Massachusetts. 
An event occmTcd about tliis time which deserves to be 
mentioned, as it exemplifies the character of Williams, 
and reflects honour upon the colonists in their transactions 
with the Indians. Foui- young EngHshmen, who had 
been servants in Plymouth, and had absconded from their 
masters, attacked an Indian near Providence, but within 
the Plymouth colony. After inflicting upon him a mortal 
wound they fled to Pro^ddence, where they were received 
by Mr. Williams with his usual hospitality, for he was yet 
ignorant of their character and crime. After their de- 
partm-e he was informed of the atrocious act they had 
perpetrated, and immediately despatched messengers for 
their apprehension. He then set out himself, with two or 
thi-ee other persons, in search of the wounded Indian. 
They conveyed him to Providence, but all efforts to pre- 
serve his life were unavailing. The murderers were soon 
arrested and brought to Providence ; and, by the advice of 
Governor Wintlu'op, they were sent to Plymouth, within 
whose jmisdiction the mm-der had been committed. One 
of the prisoners made his escape ; but the remaining three 
were tried for murder, confessed the crime, and were 
executed in the presence of Mr. WilUams and the Indians. 
This vindication of law and the rights of the natives 
secui'ed their confidence. 

Winthrop relates another cii'cumstance that evinces the 
implicit confidence the Indians reposed in Roger Williams. 
Rumours were circulated that the Indians were plotting 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 57 

new mischiefs against the colonists. The government of 
Massachusetts strengthened the defences of the towns, and 
sent an officer, with three men and an interpreter, to the 
Narragansetts to ascertain the truth of the rumoui-s, and to 
invite their sachem to Boston. Miantonomoh denied any- 
hostile intentions, and expressed his readiness to visit 
Boston , provided Mr. Williams might accompany him as 
his adviser. But the authorities of Massachusetts would 
not relax the sentence of banishment, even for the advan- 
tage of a personal interview with the sachem, and in a 
matter so important to the peace and welfare of the 
colony. 

In 1640, the tranquillity of Providence was disturbed by 
disputes respecting the boundaries of lands ; and a com- 
mittee was appointed authorized to terminate these dissen- 
sions by arbitration. The report of tliis committee is highly 
characteristic of the community. One of its prominent 
articles is in these words : — *' We agree, as formerly hath 
been the liberties of the town, so still to hold forth liherty 
of conscience" From the social feuds wliich had arisen, it 
became evident to the sagacious mind of Williams that a 
more energetic government was necessary, and the citizens 
of Providence established a form of civil polity which they 
deemed most suitable to promote peace and order in their 
present circumstances. 

The government on Rhode Island was also more regu- 
larly organized the same year, and the acts passed show 
that the settlements there and at Providence were founded 
on the same principles. On the 16th of March, 1641, it 
was ordered, by the authority of the general court, " that 
none be accounted a delinquent for doctrine, provided it 
be not dii-ectly repugnant to the government or laws esta- 
blished." And in September following, they passed a 
special act, " that that law concerning Kberty of conscience 
in point of doctrine be perpetuated." 



CHAPTER X. 

IvEAGUE OF THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES — THE SETTLEMENTS IN 
RHODE ISLAND EXCLUDED— WILLIAMS'S FIRST VISIT TO ENGLAND 
— PUBLISHES HIS KEY TO THE INDIAN LANGUAGES — OBTAINS A 
CHARTER — HIS LETTER TO COTTON — "tHE BLOUDY TENENT " — 
HE RETURNS TO AMERICA — HIS RECEPTION AT BOSTON AND 
PROVIDENCE. 

In the year 1642, the colonists of New England were 
alarmed by reports of hostile designs on the part of the 
Indians, and they accordingly adopted vigorous measures of 
defence. The natives were becoming more formidable, by 
their acquisition of fire arms and ammunition, fi'om the 
English and Dutch traders. 

The following year is memorable in the history of New 
England, by the establishment of the earliest confederacy of 
the colonies. The articles of union were signed at Boston, 
on the 19th of May, 1643, by the commissioners of the four 
colonies of Plymouth, Massachussetts Bay, Connecticut and 
New Haven, under the name of " the United Colonies of 
New England." 

The objects of the confederation were, mutual protection 
against the depredations committed by the natives, together 
vnth the enjoyment of " the liberty of the gospel, in purity 
with peace, and the advancement of the kingdom of Jesus 
Christ." By the articles, it was stipulated, that two com- 
missioners should be annually chosen by each colony, to 
meet successively at Boston, Hartford, New Haven, and 
Plymouth, once a year, or oftener if necessary, and that 
this congress should determine questions of peace or war, 
and consult for the general welfare. This league had a 
beneficial efiect, and was continued till the vear 1686. 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 59 

The colony at Providence was not invited to join this 
confederacy, and her subsequent application for admission, 
like that of the neighbouiing colony on Rhode Island, was 
refused. The want of a charter was at first the reason 
alleged, but when this objection was removed there was 
no disposition to admit her to the privileges of the league. 
The entire separation of the ecclesiastical from the civil 
power, which formed the basis of her legislation, was un- 
doubtedly the principal cause of her exclusion. Providence 
was thus exposed to many inconveniences and dangers, and 
left mthout defence, except by her own citizens. But the 
powerful influence of Ptoger Williams with the Indians 
preserved the colony, amidst the perils to which the con- 
federate colonies had abandoned her. 

The authorities of Massachusetts, not satisfied with 
having driven Williams and others from their territory, by 
their oppressive measm^es against conscience, laid claim to 
jurisdiction over the settlements in Narragansett Bay. The 
increasing prosperity of the colonies at Providence and on 
Rhode Island, their exclusion from the confederacy, and 
tlie declarations of theu- enemies that they had no legal 
authority for civil government, led the inhabitants to feel 
the great importance of obtaining a charter from the mother 
country. At an assembly in Newport, September 19, 1642, 
a committee was appointed, with instructions to procm'e a 
charter, who entrusted the agency to Roger Williams. He 
agreed, on behalf of that colony and his own, to visit 
England, and, if possible, obtain a charter defining their 
rights, and giving them independent authority, free from 
the vexatious interference of the other colonies. 

He proceeded to New York to embark for England — for 
he was not permitted to enter the territories of Massachu- 
setts, and sail from the more convenient port of Boston. 
At Manhattoes, while waiting for the ship to go to sea, lie 
had an opportmiity of exerting his influence to preserve 
that colony from the merciless attacks of the Indians. The 
savages of Long Island, provoked by the wanton cruelties 
of the Dutch, had assailed them with great fm-y. They 
had burned many houses in the neighboiu'hood of Man- 



60 LIFE OF EOGER WILLIAMS. 

liattoes ; murdered several persons, among whom were 
Mrs. Hutchinson and her family ; and assaulted the dwelling 
of Lady Moody, who had lately removed thither from Mas- 
sachusetts, It was by the immediate interposition of 
Williams that peace was restored between the inhabitants 
of the Dutch settlements and their barbarous foes. In June, 
1643, Williams embarked at New York for his native land, 
but he has left no account of the incidents of the voyage. 
He has, however, recorded one fact wliich evinces the 
activity of his mind on the ocean as well as on the land, 
and exemplifies the sentiment so beautifully expressed in 
one of his works — " One grain of time's inestimable sand 
is worth a golden mountain." He informs us that he em- 
ployed his leisure, dming this voyage, in preparing a " Key 
TO THE Indian Languages." "I di-ew the materials," 
he says, " in a rude lump, at sea, as a private help to my 
own memory ; that I might not, by my present absence, 
lightly lose what I had so dearly bought in some few years' 
hardship and changes among the barbarians." * This book 
was published soon after his arrival in England, and was 
the first work ever written on the language and manners of 
the American Indians, f The work evinces much industiy 
and acuteness in collecting the words and phrases of an 
unwritten language, and contains valuable information 
concerning the various topics of which it treats. It is 
dedicated to his " well-beloved friends and countrymen in 
Old and New England." In this dedication he says, " This 
Key respects the native language of it, and happily may 
unlock some rarities concerning the natives themselves, not 
yet discovered. A little key may open a box where lies a 
bmich of keys." He shows his benevolent zeal for the 
welfare of the natives, and professes his hope that his book 
may contribute to the spread of Chi'istianity among them, 

* Key, p. 17. 

t It is entitled, "A Key into the Language of America ; or, a 
Help to the Language of the Natives, in that part of America 
called New England ; together with brief Observations of the Cus- 
toms, Manners, Worship, &c. By Roger Williams, of Providence, 
in New England. London, 1643." 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 61 

" being comfortably persuaded that that Father of spirits 
who was graciously pleased to persuade Japheth (the Gen- 
tile) to dwell in the tents of Sheni (the Jews), will, in his 
holy season (I hope approaching), persuade these Gentiles 
of America to partake of the mercies of Europe ; and then 
shall be fulfilled what is wi'itten by the prophet Malachi, 
' from the rising of the sun (in Europe) to the going down 
of the same (in America) my name shall be great among 
the Gentiles.' " 

The Key comprises one hundred and ninety-seven pages 
of small duodecimo, and is di\dded into thirty-two chapters, 
the titles of which are — Of Salutation ; of Eating and 
Entertainment ; of Sleep ; of their Numbers ; of Relations 
and Consanguinity ; of their Heligion ; of their Govern- 
ment ; &:c. Each chapter closes with pious reflections. As 
this work is now exceedingly rare in this country,* we 
present an extract — which will interest the curious reader 
— from the twenty-first chapter, " Of Religion, the 
Soul, &c." 

" Manit, Manittowoch, God, Gods. 

" Ohs. — He that questions whether God made the world, 
the Indians will teach him. I must acknowledge I have 
received, in my converse with them, many confii-mations 
of those two great points, Heb. xi. 6 ; viz. — 

"1. That God is. 

"2. That he is a re warder of all them that diligently 
seek him. 

" They will generally confess that God made all ; but 
then, in special, although they deny not that Englishman's 
God made Englishmen, and the heavens and earth there, 
yet their gods made them, and the heavens and earth where 
they dwell. 

" Nu7nmus quauna — muchqun manit, God is angry 
with me. 

" If they receive any good in hunting, fishing, harvest, 
&c., they acknowledge God in it. 

* Only five or six copies of the original edition are known to 
exist. It was published entire in vol. i. of the Collections of the 
Rhode Island Historical Society, Providence, 1827. 



62 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

" Yea, if it be but an ordinary accident, a fall, &c., they 
will say, God was angry, and did it. 

" 3Iusquantum manit. God is angry. 

" But herein is their misery : — 

" Fu'st. They branch theii- godhead into many gods. 

" Secondly. Attribute it to creatures. 

" First. Many gods : they have given me the names of 
thirty-seven, which I have, all which, in their solemn 
worship, they invocate ; as, 

" Kautautoivit. The great south-west god, to whose 
house all souls go, and from whom came their corn and 
beans, as they say. 

" Womjmnaml. The eastern god. 

" Chekesuwand. The western god. 

" Wiinnanameanit. The northern god. 

'•^Soivicanand. The southern god. 

" Wetuomanit. The house god. 

^^ Squaucmit. The woman's god. 

^^Muckquachuchqumid. The children's god. 

" Secondly. As they have many of these feigned deities, 
so worship they the creatures in whom they conceive doth 
rest some deity : 

^^ Keesuckqiiand. The sun god. 

'•''Nanepausliat. The moon god. 

''^PoumjKu/ussit. The sea god. 

" Yotaanit. The fire god. 

" Supposing that deities be in these," &c. 

The work breathes thi'oughout a spirit of piety, and 
closes with the following devout aspirations : — 

" Now, to the most high and most holy, immortal, invi- 
sible, and only wise God, who alone is alpha and omega, the 
beginning and the ending, the fii'st and the last, who was, 
and is, and is to come ; from whom, by whom, and to whom, 
are all things ; by whose gracious assistance and wonderful 
supportment, in so many varieties of hardship and out- 
wai'd miseries, I have had such converse with barbarous 
nations, and have been mercifully assisted, to frame this 
poor Key, which may, thi'ough his blessing, in liis own holy 
season, open a door— yea, doors of unkno^vn mercies to us 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 63 

and them, be honour, glory, power, riches, wisdom, good- 
ness, and dominion, ascribed by all his in Jesus Christ to 
eternity. Amen." 

Roger Williams arrived in England when the nation was 
convulsed by the civil war, and but a few months after the 
death of the illustrious Hampden. Charles had already 
fled from London, and parliament were in possession of 
the executive and legislative authority. This state of 
afiaii's was, in some respects, favourable to the successful 
accomplishment of the mission of Williams. The issue ol 
the conflict between the king and the parliament was then 
very doubtful, and the latter were disposed to strengthen 
themselves by conciliating the colonies in America. In 
Mai'ch, 1643, the House of Commons passed a resolution in 
favom- of New England, exempting its imports and export; 
jfrom customs, subsidy, or taxation. By an ordinance, 
November 3rd, 1643, a short time after the arrival of 
Williams, parliament appointed the earl of Warwick 
governor-in-chief and lord high admiral of the American 
colonies, with a council of five peers and twelve commoners . 
It empowered him, together with his associates, to examine 
the state of theu' afiairs, to send for papers and persons, to 
remove governors and officers, and appomt others in their 
places, and to assign to these such part of the power 
granted as he should think proper.* From these com- 
missioners, Roger Williams, aided by the influence of his 
early friend. Sir Henry Vane, one of their number, easily 
obtained a charter for the colony of Rhode Island. It was 
dated March 17, 1644, and granted to the inhabitants of the 
towns of Providence, Portsmouth, and Newport, " a free 
and absolute charter of civil incorporation," to be entitled. 
The incorporation of Providence 'plantations, in the Narra- 
ffa?isett Bay in New Ejiglatid. The instrument conveyed to 
the inhabitants of these towns the most ample powers to 
adopt such a form of civil government, and " to make and 
ordain such civil laws and constitutions, as they, or the 
gi-eatest part of them, shall by free consent agree unto, 
provided, nevertheless, that the said laws for the plantation 
* Holmes' Annals, vol. i. p. 273. 



64 -LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

be conformable to the laws of England, so far as the nature 
and constitution of that place will admit." 

While in England, Williams published a small quarto 
volume, entitled, " Mr. Cotton's Letter, lately printed, 
Examined and Answered. By Roger Williams, of Pro- 
vidence, in New England. London, imprinted in the 
year 1644." It is preceded by an address to " the impartial 
reader," from which it appears, that, soon after Williams's 
banishment, in the time of his " distressed wanderings 
amongst the barbarians," Mr. Cotton sent him a letter in 
which he justifies that persecuting act of the magistrates 
in banishing him, but denies that he had any agency in 
the matter. Williams, in this work, states the causes 
which led to his banishment, shows " the sandiness of the 
grounds" on which they rested, the "rocky strength" of 
his own opinions, and concludes by desii'ing *' Mr. Cotton 
and every soul to whom these lines may come, seriously 
to consider in this controversy, if the Lord Jesus were 
himself in person in Old or New England, what church, 
what ministry, what worship, what government, he would 
set up, and what persecution he would practise toward 
them that would not receive him." Its tone is cour- 
teous, and he speaks of his great antagonist, the Rev. 
John Cotton, as a man "whom for his personal excel- 
lences I truly honom" and love." Mr. Cotton had been a 
minister of Boston, in England, and the city of Boston, in 
Massachusetts, was named after his former place of resi- 
dence, as a compliment to this eminent man. He was 
unquestionably a very talented preacher, and if he had 
lived at a period when the rights of conscience were better 
understood, his powerful pen, we doubt not, would have 
been differently employed. Dm-ing Williams's residence in 
England, he also published an anonymous pamphlet, en- 
titled, " Queries of Highest Consideration proposed to Mr. 
Thomas Goodwin — presented to the High Court of Par- 
liament, London, 1644." * It is a quarto of thirteen pages, 
and contains clear and accurate observations on the distinct 
provinces of ci\dl and ecclesiastical authority. 

* Orme's Life of Owen, p. 100. Cotton's Answer, p. 2. 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 65 

Notwitlistauding the engrossing nature of his mission in 
obtaining the charter for Rhode Island, and the great 
national conflict, in which he must have felt the deepest 
interest, Williams found leism-e to prepare for the press his 
celebrated book entitled, " The Bloudy Tenent of Persecu- 
tion, for Cause of Conscience, discussed in a Conference 
between Truth and Peace ; who, in all tender affection, 
present to the High Court of Parliament (as the result of 
their discom^se) these, amongst other, passages of highest 
consideration. London. Printed in the year 1644." The 
origin of this work illustrates the spirit of the age. A 
person, who was confined in Newgate on account of his 
religious opinions, wrote a treatise against persecution for 
cause of conscience. Being deprived of the use of ink, it 
was wi'itten with milk, on sheets of paper sent by a friend, 
as stoppers to the bottle containing his daily allowance of 
milk. After its publication, the essay was sent, about the 
year 1635, to the Rev. John Cotton, of Boston, who ^vi'ote 
a reply, of which Williams's book is an examination. Its 
title, " The Bloudy Tenent," is chosen to exhibit, in strong- 
contrast, the different character of the two essays — the one, 
toleration, written with milk ; and the other, persecution, 
steeped in blood. 

The book comprises two hundred and forty-seven pages 
of small quarto, and is printed without the name of the 
author or publisher. It is dedicated "to the Right Honour- 
able both Houses of the High Court of Parliament ;" and it 
appears to have attracted the attention of some of the leading 
men in England. After an address "to every com-teous 
reader," the treatise of the prisoner, and jMr. Cotton's reply, 
are inserted ; then follows the main work, which is in the 
form of a dialogue between Truth and Peace. It was prepared 
for publication, as the author himself observes, " in change 
of rooms and corners, yea, sometimes in variety of strange 
houses ; sometimes in the fields, in the midst of travel;" 
yet it is the best of his works, and contains a full exhibi- 
tion of his doctrines of religious freedom, supported by 
luminous and powerful reasoning. His style is generally 
animated, and often highly beautiful. 

F 



66 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

The colloquy between Truth and Peace commences 
thus : — 

" Truth. — In what dark corner of the world, sweet Peace, 
are we two met ? How hath this present evil world 
banished me from all the coasts and quarters of it ? and 
how hath the righteous God in judgment taken thee from 
the earth ? Rev. vi. 4. 

" Peace. — 'Tis lamentably true, blessed Truth, the founda- 
tions of the world have long been out of course. The gates 
of earth and hell have conspired together to intercept our 
joyful meeting and our holy kisses. With what a weary, 
tired wing have I flown over nations, kingdoms, cities, 
towns, to find out precious Truth. 

" Truth. — The like inquiries in my flights and travels 
have I made for Peace, and still am told, she hath left the 
earth and fled to heaven. 

" Peace. — Dear Truth, what is the earth but a dungeon of 
darkness, where Truth is not ?" 

A complete analysis of this work would occupy too much 
space, but a syllabus is presented in the author's own 
words : — 

" The blood of so many hundred thousand souls, of pro- 
testants and papists, spilt in the wars of present and former 
ages, for their respective consciences, is not required nor 
accepted by Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace. — Pregnant 
scriptm-es and arguments are, thi^oughout the work, pro- 
jjosed against the doctrine of persecution for cause of 
conscience. — Satisfactory answers are given to scriptm-es 
and objections produced by Mr. Calvin, Beza, Mr. Cotton, 
and the ministers of the New English chm^ches, and others, 
former and latter, tending to prove the doctrine of perse- 
cution for cause of conscience. — The docti-ine of persecution 
for cause of conscience is proved guilty of all the blood of 
the souls crying for vengeance under the altar. — All civil 
states, with theii' oiRcers of justice, in their respective 
constitutions and administrations, are proved essentially 
ci\il, and, therefore, not judges, governors, or defenders of 
the spiritual or christian state and worship. — It is the will 
and command of God that, since the coming of his Son the 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 67 

Lord Jesus, a permission of the most paganish, Jewish, 
Turkish, or anti-chi'istian consciences and worships he 
granted to all men in all nations and countries ; and they 
are only to he fought against wdth that sword which is 
only in soul matters ahle to conquer ; to wit, the sword of 
God's Spii'it, the word of God. — The state of the land of 
Israel, the kings and people thereof, in peace and war, is 
proved, figm^ative and ceremonial, and no pattern nor pre- 
cedent for any kingdom or civil state in the world to follow. 
— God requireth not an uniformity of rehgion to be enacted 
and enforced in any civil state ; which enforced uniformity, 
sooner or later, is the greatest occasion of civil war, ravish- 
ing of conscience, persecution of Clirist Jesus in his ser- 
vants, and of the hypocrisy and destruction of millions of 
souls. — In holding an enforced uniformity of religion in a 
civil state, we must necessarily disclaim om- desii^es and 
hopes of the Jews' conversion to Christ. — An enforced 
uniformity of religion throughout a nation or civil state, 
confounds the civil and religious, denies the principles of 
Christianity and civility, and that Jesus Christ is come in 
the flesh.— The permission of other consciences and wor- 
ships than a state professeth, only can, according to God, 
procure a firm and lasting peace ; good assurance being 
taken, according to the wisdom of the civil state, for 
uniformity of civil obedience from all sorts. — True civility 
and cliristianity may both flourish in a state or kingdom, 
notwithstanding the permission of divers and contrary 
consciences, either of Jew or Gentile." 

The grand doctrine for wliich he contends is, that as 
God is the Supreme Ruler, the obligation to love and obey 
him binds the conscience of every man ; but he is respon- 
sible to God alone. His fellow-men, therefore, have no 
right to interfere with his religious opinions, for God has 
not delegated to any man this authority over the conscience ; 
consequently, all human laws which either prescribe or 
prohibit doctrines or rites that are not inconsistent with the 
civil peace, are an invasion of God's prerogative, and no 
man is bound to obey them. 

Principles of religious liberty are expounded and illus- 



68 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

trated in the " Bloudy Tenent," wliich haye since excited 
admiration in the writings of Jeremy Taylor, Milton, Locke, 
and Furneau. Bishop Heber, in his life of Jeremy Taylor, 
remarks, of the " Liberty of Prophecying :" — " It is the 
first attempt on record to conciliate the minds of Christians 
to the reception of a doctrine which, though now the rule 
of action professed by all christian sects, was then, by 
every sect alike, regarded as a perilous and portentous 
novelty." Bishop Heber has here fallen into a mistake, as 
Taylor's admii-able work was not published till 1647, three 
years after the " Bloudy Tenent." In the latter work the 
principles of liberty of conscience are far more clearly and 
consistently maintained. Taylor claims toleration for those 
Christians 07ily who unite in the confession of the Apostles^ 
Creed ; Williams claims not merely a right to toleration, 
but /or ever-y man eiitire liberty of conscience. 

Roger Williams, having accomplished the object of his 
mission to England, embarked for America, and landed at 
Boston, September 17th, 1644. He brought with him the 
following letter, signed by several noblemen, and other 
members of parliament, and addressed " To the right wor- 
shipful the governor and assistants, and the rest of our 
worthy friends in the plantation of Massachusetts Bay, in 
New England :" — • 

" Our much-honoured Friends, — Taking notice, some 
of us of long time, of Mr. Roger Williams, his good afiec- 
tions and conscience, and of his sufferings by our common 
enemies and oppressors of God's people, the prelates; as, 
also, of his great industry and travail in his printed Indian 
labours in your parts (the like whereof we have not seen 
extant from any part of America), and in which respect it 
hath pleased both houses of parliament to grant unto him, 
and friends with him, a free and absolute charter of civil 
government for those parts of his abode ; and, withal, sor- 
rowfully resenting — that amongst good men (om- friends) 
driven to the ends of the world, exercised with the trials of 
a wilderness, and who mutually give good testimony, each 
of the other (as we observe you do of him, and he abund- 
antly of you), — there should be such a distance ; we thought 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 69 

it fit, upon divers considerations, to profess our great desires 
of both your utmost endeavours of nearer closing and of 
readily expressing those good affections (which we perceive 
you bear to each other), in effectual performance of all 
friendly offices. The rather because of those bad neigh- 
bom's you are likely to find in Virginia, and the unfriendly 
visits from the west of England and of Ireland, That how- 
ever it may please the Most High to shake om* foundations, 
yet the report of yom- peaceable and prosperous plantations 
may be some refreshings to your true and faithful friends." 

This letter was delivered to the authorities of Massa- 
chusetts, and procm-ed for Williams permission to proceed 
unmolested to Providence, but it failed to soften their 
temper towards him, or the heretical colony. The magis- 
trates, says Hubbard, upon the receipt of the letter, 
examined their hearts, but saw no reason to condemn 
themselves for any former proceedings against Mr. Williams. 
The colony being now invested with the dignity of an 
independent government, and under the protection of the 
parent country, appeared to the united colonies to possess 
a greater power for mischief, and they steadily pursued 
towards her an unfriendly policy. 

The news of Williams's arrival at "Boston had preceded 
him, and the inhabitants of Providence met liim at Seekonk, 
with a fleet of canoes to welcome his return, and to convey 
him home in triumph. These humble colonists could not 
receive their constant friend and benefactor with the pomp 
of regal display, but they offered him the more valuable 
homage of heart-felt gratitude. Such an expression of it 
is honourable to om* common humanity, and is a reward 
seldom withheld from those who, like Roger WilUams, seek 
with disinterested patriotism the welfare of their country. 
This reception is a sufficient testimony of the esteem in 
which his character and services were held by his fellow- 
citizens. 



CHAPTER XL 

Williams's efforts in preventing a general Indian war — 

FORM OF government UNDER THE CHARTER — SPIRIT OF THE 
LAWS — DISSENSIONS — WILLIAMS'S LETTER TO THE TOWN OF 
PROVIDENCE — CODDINGTON's COMMISSION — OPPRESSnTE POLICY 
OF THE OTHER NEW ENGLAND COLONIES — PERSECUTION OF JOHN 
CLARKE, AND OTHERS, IN MASSACHUSETTS — LETTER OF SIR 
RICHARD SALTONSTALL — WILLIAMS AND CLARKE ARE APPOINTED 
AGENTS TO THE MOTHER COUNTRY. 

Immediately after his return, Roger AVilliams endeavoured 
to cany into operation the charter he had procured, but the 
inhabitants w^ere not prepared at once to agree on a form of 
government. The charter gave them power to frame their 
own laws, but much skill and delicacy were necessary to 
harmonize the various conflicting interests of the respective 
towns. 

In the meantime, the beneficent services of Williams 
were required in settling the difficulties which had sprung 
up, dm-ing his absence, between the united colonies and 
the Narragansetts. The latter, exasperated against the 
Mohegans, who had put to death their favourite sachem, 
Miantonomoh, and against the colonists, who had sanc- 
tioned the deed, resolved on war. They soon commenced 
hostilities, killed several of the Mohegans, and threatened 
to extend the war to all the colonists of New England, 
except those at Providence, and on Rhode Island, having, 
from regard to Williams, agreed to maintain peace with 
these settlements. An extraordinary meeting of the com- 
missioners was held in Boston, when they received a letter 
from Roger Williams, informing them of the hostile deter- 
minations of the Narragansetts. Two messengers were 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 71 

sent to the sachems of the tribe to appease their vengeance 
and prevent the war. Williams had already been sent for 
by the sachems to advise them in this crisis ; and on the 
arrival of the messengers he served them as an interpreter. 
By his mediation, Passacus, the brother and successor of 
Miantonomoh, and other chiefs of the tribe, were persuaded 
to go to Boston, where a treaty was concluded in August, 
1645, between the commissioners and the sachems, by which 
the latter agreed to make peace with the Mohegans. Thus 
were the settlements of New England saved, a second time, 
fi'om a general Indian war, mainly by the good offices and 
personal influence of Roger Williams. 

The several to^vns of the Providence plantations at length 
agreed on a form of civil government, closely analogous to 
the organization of the United States, under their present 
constitution. It was adopted in a general assembly of the 
people of the colony, held at Portsmouth, May 19th, 1647. 
This form required the annual election of a president and 
four assistants, in whom the executive power was vested, 
and who constituted the general court of trial for all cases 
of appeal. The legislative assembly was composed of six 
commissioners from each town, who should make laws and 
order the general affairs of the colony. The laws adopted 
by the above-mentioned general assembly were mainly 
taken from those of England. This excellent code con- 
cludes mth these memorable words : — " These are the laws 
that concern all men, and these are the penalties for the 
transgressions thereof, which, by common consent, are 
ratified and established throughout the whole colony. And 
otherwise than thus, what is herein forbidden, all men may 
walk as their consciences persuade them, every one in the 
name of his God. And let the saints of the Most 
High walk in this colony without molestation, in 
the name of Jehovah their God, for ever and 
ever." * 

An eminent American historian justly observes, " The 
annals of Rhode Island, if written in the spirit of philo- 
sophy, would exhibit the forms of society under a peculiar 
* Colony Records. 



72 LIFE OF EOGEK WILLIAMS. 

aspect. Had tlie territory of the state corresponded to the 
importance and singularity of the principles of its early 
existence, the world would have been filled with wonder at 
the phenomena of its early history." * Williams had a 
large share in the organization of the new government, and 
he was justly entitled, fi'om his character and services, to 
be the first president. It was, undoubtedly, to conciliate 
the other towns that he cheerfully yielded his own claims 
to that office, while he accepted the subordinate place of 
assistant for the town of Providence. Among the acts 
passed at this first meeting of the general assembly, was a 
resolution gratefully recognising the services of Roger 
Williams in obtaining the charter, and " in regard to liis 
so great trouble, charges, and good endeavom-s," granting 
him the sum of one hundred pounds. This was, un- 
doubtedly, a very inadequate compensation, but the whole 
even of this sum was never paid, owing, perhaps, to the 
unhappy jealousies which arose between the different settle- 
ments ; or, it may be, Williams was too generous to press his 
just claims. It must be confessed, however, that gratitude 
has not been a conspicuous virtue of any government, 
republican or monarchical. Individual conscience seems 
to be dissipated when men act together in large com- 
munities. 

It could not be expected that the several towns of the 
colony, composed of so many discordant materials, em- 
bracing all sorts of opinions, would quietly coalesce in one 
form of government. The harmony of Providence was 
early disturbed, by the resort of many restless spii-its from 
the other colonies, who entertained mistaken views of 
religious freedom. The influence of Williams was often 
needed as a peace-maker, to throw oil upon the troubled 
waters. 

One of the principal sources of disquietude to Williams 
at this time, and of injmy to the colony, was the extra- 
ordinary proceedings of William Coddington, the leading 
inhabitant of the settlement on Rhode Island. The fierce 
conflict then raging at home affected this distant depen- 
* Bancroft, v.ol. i. p. 380. 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 73 

dency. Coddington was attached to the king's party, and 
disposed to promote liis authority in the colony. From the 
first organization of the government, mider the charter, his 
efforts were directed to its overthrow. Having persuaded 
a faction to unite with him, he first attempted to ohtain 
admission for the island settlements into the league of the 
New England colonies, but, happily, this effort failed. 

In this state of afiaii^s Williams addressed a letter to the 
town of Providence, dated August, 1648, which places his 
character as a peacemaker in a very interesting light : — 

" Worthy friends, that ourselves and all men are apt and 
prone to differ, is no new thing. In all former ages, in all 
parts of the world, in these parts, and in our dear native 
country and mournful state of England, that either part or 
party is most right in his own eyes, his cause right, his 
carriage right, his arguments right, his answers right, is as 
woefully and constantly true, as the former. And experience 
tells us, that when the God of peace hath taken peace from 
the earth, one spark of action, word or carriage, is power- 
ful enough to kindle such a fire as burns up towns, cities, 
armies, navies, nations, and kingdoms. And since, dear 
friends, it is an honom* for men to cease from strife ; since 
the life of love is sweet, and union is as strong as sweet ; 
and since you have been lately pleased to call me to some 
public service, and my soul hath been long musing how I 
might bring water to quench, and not oil or fuel to the 
flame ; I am now humbly bold to beseech you, by all those 
comforts of earth and heaven, which a placable and peace- 
able spirit will bring to you, and by all those dreadful 
alarms and warnings, either amongst ourselves, in deaths 
and sicknesses, or abroad in the raging calamities of the 
sword, death, and pestilence ; I say, humbly and earnestly 
beseech you, to be willing to be pacifiable, wilhng to be 
reconcilable, willing to be sociable, and to listen to the (I 
hope not unreasonable) motion following : To try out matters 
by disputes and wiitings, is sometimes endless ; to try out 
arguments by arms and swords, is cruel and merciless ; to 
trouble the state and lords of England, is most unreasonable, 
most chargeable ; to trouble oui* neighbours of other colonies, 



74 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

seems neither safe nor honourable. Methinks, dear friends, 
the colony now looks with the torn face of two parties, and 
that the greater number of Portsmouth, with other loving 
friends adhering to them, appear as one grieved party ; the 
other thi-ee towns, or greater part of them, appear to be 
another. Let each party choose and nominate three ; Ports- 
mouth and friends adhering, three, the other party, three, 
one out of each town ; let authority be given to them to 
examine every public difference, grievance and obstruction 
of justice, peace and common safety; let them, by one final 
sentence of all or the greater part of them, end all, and set 
the whole into an unanimous posture and order, and let 
them set a censm-e upon any that shall oppose their 
sentence." 

This excellent advice, however, could not be followed, for 
Coddington persisted in his ambitious views. He went to 
England, and procured from the council of state a com- 
mission, constituting him governor for life of the islands of 
Rhode Island and Canonicut. He returned in 1651, bring- 
ing his new charter, whose operation would at once subvert 
the existing government and divide the colony. This pro- 
duced great excitement throughout the difierent settlements, 
and alarmed those inhabitants on the island who were 
opposed to his measm'cs. 

In addition to these internal dissensions, other troubles 
arose. The colony was surrounded by Massachusetts, Ply- 
mouth, and Connecticut, which were all opposed to the little 
heretical state, and regarded her as their legitimate prey. 
Plymouth was desn-ous of adding the beautiful island to her 
territory ; Connecticut repeatedly asserted her claims to the 
Narragansett country; and Massachusetts claimed Pro- 
vidence and the neighbouring settlement of Warwick. 

The special aversion which Massachusetts felt towards 
intruders from Rhode Island is illustrated in the memorable 
transactions in which the Rev. John Clarke, Mr. Obadiah 
Holmes, and Mr. John Crandall, three citizens of Newport, 
had so melancholy a share. They were appointed by the 
church in Newport to visit one William Witter, an aged 
member of that church, then resident at Lynn, a few miles 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 75 

east of Boston, who had requested a visit for the purpose of 
christian intercourse. The committee proceeded, in a 
peaceahle manner, on this benevolent mission to Lynn. 
The next day being the- Sabbath, it was thought proper 
to spend it in worship at the house of Witter. While Mr. 
Clarke was preaching from Rev. iii. 10, relating to tempta- 
tion, he was suddenly interrupted by two constables, who 
arrested him and his companions by virtue of the following 
warrant signed by one of the magistrates ; \iz. — " By virtue 
hereof, you are required to go to the house of William 
Witter, and so to search fi'om house to house for certain erro- 
neous persons, being strangers, and them to apprehend, and 
in safe custody to keep, and to morrow morning, at eight 
o'clock, to bring before me." Mr. Clarke and his companions 
were detained, through the Sabbath, in the custody of the 
officers, and the next day were committed to prison in Boston. 
On being brought before the com-t for trial, Mr. Clarke 
defended himself and his companions so ably that the 
magistrates were not a little embarrassed. " At length, 
however," says Mr. Clarke, " the governor stepped up, and 
told us we had denied infant baptism, and, being somewhat 
transported, told me I had deserved death, and said he 
would not have such trash brought into his jurisdiction." 

The trial resulted in the conviction of the prisoners, and 
Mr. Clarke was sentenced to pay a fine of twenty pounds, 
Mr. Holmes, of thirty pounds, and Mr. Crandall, of five 
pounds ; or, in case of their refusal of payment, to be 
whipped. They refused to pay the fines, as they acknow- 
ledged neither the justice of the sentence, nor the jurisdic- 
tion of the magistrates. They were accordingly committed 
to prison, from which, after a few weeks, Messrs. Clarke 
and Crandall were released, by the interposition of theii* 
friends, and permitted to return to Newport. Mr. Holmes 
was confined longer, and before he was discharged, thirty 
lashes were inflicted on him with merciless severity. Two 
other persons, also, who were present at his punishment, 
and expressed sympathy with the sufierers, were fined and 
imprisoned.* 

* Backus's History of New England, vol. i. p. 207. 



76 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

To record facts like these of tlie Pilgrim Fathers is 
inexpressibly painful. It tends, however, to deepen our 
abhorrence of the principle which could pervert the judg- 
ment and harden the heart of men so justly eminent for 
theii' piety. If they had abandoned to their persecutors in 
the fatherland the policy of state interference with re- 
ligious opinions, no shade would now rest upon theu' other- 
wise glorious memories. 

It is refreshing, however, to turn to a brighter page, 
evincing that these persecutions were not unanimously 
approved. Sii- Richard Saltonstall, one of the magistrates 
of Massachusetts Bay, then in England, wrote thus to the 
Rev. Messrs. Cotton and Wilson, of Boston : — 

" Reverend and dear friends, whom I unfeignedly love and 
respect, — It doth not a little grieve my spirit to hear what 
sad things are reported daily of yom* tyranny and persecu- 
tion in New England, as that you fine, wliip, and imprison 
men for their consciences. First you compel such to come 
into your assemblies as you know will not join you in your 
worsliip, and when they show their dislike thereof, or 
witness against it, then you stir up your magistrates to 
punish them for such — as you conceive — their public 
affronts. Truly, friends, this yom* practice of compelling 
any in matters of worship to do that whereof they are 
not fully persuaded, is to make them sin, for so the 
apostle (Rom. xiv. 23) tells us, and many are made hypo- 
crites thereby, conforming in their outward man, for fear of 
punishment. We pray for you, and wish you prosperity 
every way, hoping the Lord would have given you so much 
light and love there, that you might have been eyes to 
God's people here, and not to practise those com-ses in a 
wilderness, which you went so far to prevent. These rigid 
ways have laid you very low in the hearts of the saints." 

In this distressed state of the colony, while the citizens 
were at variance with each other, and were subjected to 
such tyrannical acts from theii' powerful and ambitious 
neighbour, Massachusetts, it was apparent that the only 
safety was in a union of all the towns. The Indians, 
also, began to commit depredations, and offer insults which 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 11 

the iudi^ddual settlements were too feeble to punish, and 
which the commissioners of the united colonies refused to 
redress. 

In this crisis, nearly all the inhabitants of Newport, and 
a large number of those of Portsmouth, requested John 
Clarke to proceed to England, as their agent, to procm-e the 
repeal of Coddington's commission, and the confirmation of 
the charter obtained by Williams. The appointment of Mr, 
Clarke to this mission was, in every respect, most judicious. 
He was a gentleman of liberal education, com'teous manners, 
and the original projector of the settlement on the island. 
He was held in high estimation as a physician, and a 
minister of the chm-ch at Newport, and, in every emergency, 
had proved himself able in counsel, wise in deliberation, and 
energetic in action. After his return, he was elected three 
years successively deputy-governor. 

The to^^^ls of Providence and Warwick, which continued 
to maintain the government under the original charter, 
urgently importuned Williams to accompany Clarke, and 
co-operate with him to accomplish this important object. 
He at first absolutely declined accepting tliis important 
trust, from reluctance again to leave his large family, and 
from inability to sustain the expense. His warm interest in 
the colony he had founded, and the importunities of the 
citizens, at length induced him to accept the appointment 
and he prepared again to cross the Atlantic. Some efibrts 
were made by the inhabitants of Providence and Warwick 
to obtain a sufficient sum for defraying the expenses of the 
mission, but they do not appear to have been efiectual. To 
obtain the means of making the voyage, and supporting his 
family during his absence, he says, that '' he sold his trading 
house at Narragansett, with one hundi-ed pounds profit per 
annum ; " a new proof, if any were needed, of his self- 
sacrificing patriotism. 



CHAPTER XII. 

WILLL^MS AND CLARKE SAIL FOR ENGLAND — CODDINGTON's COM- 
MISSION REVOKED, AND THE FORMER CHARTER CONFIRMED — 
LETTER OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY TO WILLIAMS — PUBLISHES 
HIS EXPERIMENTS OF SPIRITUAL LIFE AND HEALTH AND THEIR 
PRESERVATIVES — THE HIRELING MINISTRY — REJOINDER TO 
COTTON — CORRESPONDENCE. 

Having made the necessary arrangements preparatory to 
his long absence from home, Williams joined his friend 
Clarke at Boston, where they embarked together in Novem- 
ber, 1651. It was not without considerable difficulty that 
Williams was allowed to pass through the territory of 
Massachusetts, for the purpose of taking ship for England. 
He alludes to the fact, in his subsequent letters, though he 
does not mention the nature of the molestation he suffered 
fi-om the authorities. The objects of his embassy were 
offensive to them, besides thefr hatred of his principles. 

Great events had occm-red in the mother country since 
Williams last visited her shores. Monarchy had been 
subverted, and the supreme authority was vested in a 
comicil of state. On their arrival in England, Williams 
and Clarke presented a petition to the council, in behalf of 
the colony they had come to represent, who referred it to 
th^ committee for foreign affairs. The application met with 
opposition from various quarters ; but an order was at length 
passed by the comicil annulling Coddington's commission, 
and confirming the former charter. This important measm-e 
WilKams ascribes mainly to the efforts of his friend Sir 
Henry Vane, a man of kindred spirit, and a prominent 
member of the council. 

During the absence of Williams, the general assembly, 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 19 

which met at Providence, addressed a letter to him which 
is valuable, as a public testimonial of the esteem of his 
fellow citizens. The following is an extract : — 

" Honom-ed Sir, — We may not neglect any opportunity to 
salute you in this your absence, and have not a little cause 
to bless God, who hath pleased to select you to such a 
purpose, as we doubt not will conduce to the peace and 
safety of us all, as to make you once more an instrument to 
impart and disclose om- cause unto those noble and grave 
senators, our honourable protectors, in whose eyes God hath 
given you honour — as we understand — beyond our hopes, 
and moved the hearts of the wise to stir on your behalf. 
We give you hearty thanks for your care and diligence to 
watch all opportunities to promote our peace, for we perceive 
your prudent and comprehensive mind stii-reth every stone 
to present it to the builders, to make firm the fabric unto 
us, about which you are employed. . . . 

" Sir, give us leave to intimate thus much, that we humbly 
conceive — so far as we are able to miderstand — that, if it 
be the pleasure of our protectors to renew our charter for 
the re-establisliing of our government, that it might tend 
much to the weighing of men's minds, and subjection of 
persons who have been refractory, to yield themselves over 
as unto a settled government, if it might be the pleasm-e of 
that honom-able State, to invest, appoint, and empower 
yourself to come over as governor of this colony, for the 
space of one year, and so the government to be honom-ably 
put upon this place, which might seem to add weight for 
ever hereafter in the constant and successive derivation of 
the same. We only present it to your deliberate thoughts 
and consideration, with our hearty desires that your time of 
stay there, for the ejffectual perfecting and finisliing of your 
so weighty affaii-s, may not seem tedious, nor be any dis- 
couragement unto you ; rather than you shall suffer for loss 
of time here, or expense there, we are resolved to stretch 
forth our hands at yom' return, beyond our strength, for 
your supply." 

It does not appear that Williams took any steps to procure 
for himself the appointment of governor, considering, pro- 



80 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

bably, that it would be a dangerous precedent, and an inter- 
ference with the right of his fellow-citizens to elect their 
own officers. 

Of Williams's literary industry, we have a new proof, in 
the publication of a work immediately after his arrival in 
England. It was written, he says, *' in the thickest of the 
naked Indians of America, in theu^ very wild houses, and by 
their barbarous fires." The volume is entitled, " Expe- 
riments of Spiritual Life and Health, and their Preser- 
vatives. London, 1652. " After dihgent inquiiy, the 
writer is not aware that more than one copy of this 
work now exists. In the dedication " to the truly honour- 
able the Lady Vane, " he says, " yom* favom-able and 
christian respects to me, your godly and christian letters 
to me, so many thousand miles distant in America; and 
your many gracious demonstrations of an humble and 
christian spirit breathing in you, are a thi-ee-fold cord 
which have di'awn these lines into your presence." There 
is also prefixed to the work a letter to his wife, which 
afibrds pleasing evidence of his affectionately domestic cha- 
racter, from which we give the following extract : — 

" My dearest love and companion in this vale of tears, — 
Thy late sudden and dangerous sickness, and the Lord's 
most gracious and speedy raising thee up from the gates 
and jaws of death, as they were wonderful in their own 
and others' eyes, so I earnestly desire they may be ever in 
our thoughts, as a warning fi'om heaven to make ready for 
a sudden call to be gone from hence — to live the rest of our 
short, uncertain span, more as strangers, longing and 
breathing after another home and country — to cast off* our 
great cares, and fears, and desires, and joys about the 
candle of this vain life, that is so soon blown out, and 
to trust in the living God. I send thee — though in winter 
— a handful of flowers, made up in a little posy, for thy 
dear self and om- dear children, to look and smell on, when 
I, as grass of the field, shall be gone and withered." 

The work is divided into tliree parts — 1. " Arguments of 
spii'itual life, wherein the weakest child of God may find 
bis spiritual life apparent, though overcast and eclipsed with 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 81 

spiritual weakness. 2. Arguments of the strength and 
vigour of the spiiit of life and holiness; in which the 
strongest and eldest in Christ may find experiments of 
spii'itual health, and chiistian activity and cheerfulness. 
3. Some means are proposed wherein the Spirit of God 
usually breatheth for the preserving and maintaining of a 
tiTily spuitual and christian health and cheerfulness." It 
manifests thi'oughout deep and enlightened piety, and con- 
cludes in the following language : — " How frequent, how 
constant, should we be — like Christ Jesus, om* founder and 
example — in doing good, especially to the souls of all men, 
especially to the household of faith ; yea, even to our 
enemies, when we remember this is our seed-time, of which 
every minute is precious, and that as our solving is, must be 
om* eternal harvest." 

Within less than a month from the time the above-men- 
tioned book issued from the press, he published a small 
treatise, with the title, " The Hireling Ministry none of 
Christ's; or, a Discourse touching the propagating the 
Gospel of Christ Jesus," &c. The chief object of this 
work is, to oppose a legal establishment of religion, and 
the compulsory support of the clergy, by tithes, and other 
modes of taxation. It is not, however, as its title would 
now seem to import, an argument against the maintenance 
of ministers of the gospel, to which the author insists they 
are entitled. He earnestly contends for the right of " all 
the people of the three nations to choose and maintain what 
worship and ministry their souls and consciences are per- 
suaded thereof." He also expresses, in this volume, the 
following enlightened opinions respecting the Jews : — " By 
the merciful assistance of the Most High, I have desired to 
labour in Europe, in America, with English, with bar- 
barians ; yea, and also I have longed after some ti*ading 
with the Jews themselves, for whose hard measure I fear 
the nations and England hath yet a score to pay." 

In the year 1647, the Rev. John Cotton attempted a reply 

to the " Bloudy Tenent," in which he maintained the right 

of the magistrate to interfere for the promotion of truth 

and the suppression of error. It was during this visit to 

G 



82 LIFE OF ROGER AVILLIAMS. 

England, and while thus engaged in the service of his own 
colony, that Williams, in the winter of 1652, prepared for 
the press, and published, a rejoinder, entitled, " The Bloudy 
Tenent, yet more bloody by Mr. Cotton's endeavour to wash 
it white in the Blood of the Lamb. Of whose precious 
blood, spilt in the blood of his servants, and of the blood 
of millions spilt in former and later wars for conscience 
sake, that most Bloody Tenent of persecution for cause of 
conscience, upon a second trial, is found now more appa- 
rently and more notoriously guilty." 

In this rejoinder to Mr. Cotton the following topics are 
principally treated : — " 1. The Natui-e of Persecution. 

2. The Power of the Civil Sword in Spirituals examined. 

3. The Parliament's permission of Dissenting Consciences 
justified. Also (as a testimony to Mr. Clarke's) is added 
a Letter to Mr. Endicott, Governor of the Massachusetts, in 
N. E. By R. Williams, of Providence, in New England. 
London, printed 1652." It is a quarto volume of three 
hundred and seventy-four pages. The same clear, enlarged, 
and consistent views of religious freedom are maintained 
in this work as in his preceding ones, with additional 
arguments, evincing an acute, \dgorous, and fearless mind, 
imbued with various erudition and undissenibled piety. It 
is characterised by the kindest tone, and pervaded by a 
courteousness of style unusual in the controversial writings 
of that age. The author says : — " The Most Holy and All- 
seeing knows how bitterly I lament the least difference 
with Mr. Cotton, yea, with the least of the followers of 
Jesus, of what conscience or worship soever." 

In the appendix is an address " To the Clergy of the 
four great Parties, professing the Name of Christ Jesus, in 
England, Scotland, and Ireland ; viz., the Popish, Prelatical, 
Presbyterian, and Independent :" fi'om which we make the 
following extract : — 

"Worthy Sirs, — I have pleaded the cause of your 
several and respective consciences against the bloody doc- 
trine of persecution, in my former laboui'S, and in this my 
present rejoinder to jNIr. Cotton. And yet I must j)ray 
leave, without offence, to say, I have impartially opposed 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 88 

and charged your consciences also, so far as guilty of 
that bloody doctrine of persecuting each other for your 
consciences. 

"You foui- have torn the seamless coat of the Son of 
God into four pieces, and, to say nothing of former times 
and tearings, you foui* have torn the three nations into 
thousands of pieces and distractions. The two former of 
you, the popish and protestant prelatical, are brethren ; so 
ai'e the latter, the presbyterian and independent. But, 
oh, how rara est, &c. ? What concord, what love, what 
pity, hath ever yet appeared amongst you, when the pro- 
vidence of the Most High and Only Wise hath granted you 
your patents of mutual and successive dominion and pre- 
cedency. 

" Just like two men, whom I have known break out to 
blows and wrestling, so have the protestant bishops fought 
and wrestled with the popish, and the popish with the pro- 
testant ! The presbyterian with the independent, and the 
independent with the presbyterian ! And our chi'onicles 
and experiences have told this nation, and the world, how 
he whose tmni it is to be brought under, hath ever felt a 
heavy, wrathful hand of an mibrotherly and unchristian 
persecutor." 

The following passage, in allusion to the episcopal 
clergy who had been ejected from their benefices, shows 
that his sympathies embraced all the persecuted without 
regard to denomination : " I make another humble plea — 
and that, I believe, with all the reason and justice in the 
world — that such who are ejected, undone, impoverished, 
might, some way from the state or you, receive relief and 
succour : considering, that the very nation's constitution 
hath occasioned parents to train up, and persons to give 
themselves to studies, though, in truth, but in a way of 
trade and bargaining before God ; yet is, according to the 
custom of the nation, who ought, therefore, to share also in 
the fault of such priests and ministers who in all changes 
are ejected." But to return to the affairs of his own colony, 
which, whether at home or abroad, were the primary 
objects of his solicitude. This, and other interesting 



84 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

features in his public and private character, are illustrated 
in the following extracts from his correspondence. In a 
letter to his friend, Gregory Dexter, of Providence, dated 
August 7, 1652, he says: — 

" By my public letters, you will see how we wrestle, and 
how we are like yet to wrestle, in the hopes of an end. 
Praised be the Lord, we are preserved, the nation is pre- 
served, the parliament sits, God's people are secure, too 
secure. A great opinion is, that the kingdom of Christ is 
risen, and*' the kingdoms of the earth are become the king- 
doms of om- Lord and of his Christ.' (Rev. xi.) Others have 
fear of the slaughter of the witnesses yet approaching. 
Divers friends, of all sorts, here, long to see you, and 
wonder you come not over. For myself, I had hopes to 
have got away by this sliip, but I see now the mind of the 
Lord to hold me here one year longer. It is God's mercy, 
his very great mercy, that we have obtained this interim 
encouragement fi'om the council of state, that you may 
cheerfully go on in the name of a colony, until the con- 
troversy is determined. The determination of it, sir, I fear, 
will be a work of time ; I fear longer than we have yet 
been here, for our adversaries threaten to make a last 
appeal to the parliament, in case we get the day before the 
council. 

" Sir, in this regard, and when my public business is over, 
I am resolved to begin my old law-suit, so that I have no 
thought of return until spring come twelve months. My 
duty and affection hath compelled me to acquaint my poor 
companion with it. I consider om- many children, the 
danger of the seas and enemies, and, therefore, I TVTite not 
positively for her, only I acquaint her with our affaii's. I 
tell her, joyful I should be of her being here with me, until 
om- state affairs were ended, and I freely leave her to wait 
upon the Lord for direction, and, according as she finds her 
spii-it free and cheerful, to come or stay. If it please the 
Lord to give her a free spiiit, to cast herself upon the Lord, 
I doubt not of yom' love and faithful care, in anything she 
hath occasion to use your help, concerning our childi^en and 
affairs, during our absence ; but I conclude, whom have I in 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 85 

heaven or earth hut thee ? and so humhly and thankfully 
stay in the Lord's pleasure, as only and infinitely best and 
sweetest." 

The order of the council of state, directing the several 
plantations to unite again under the government of the 
charter, was brought to Newport in the early part of the 
year 1653. Such, however, were the jealousies which had 
sprung up during the separation of the towns, that it 
was found easier to command than to enforce obedience. 
Williams, with his associate, continued in England, to 
watch the progress of events and sustain the rights of the 
colony. The following letter shows how much they were 
indebted to the friendly aid of Sir Henry Vane. It is 
addressed to the towns of Providence and Warwick : — 

From Sir Henry Vane's, at Belleau, in Lincolnshire. 

"April 1st, 1653. 

" My dear and loving Friends and Neighbours of 
Providence and Warwick, — Our noble friend, Sir Henry 
Vane, having the navy of England mostly depending on his 
care, and going down to the navy at Portsmouth, I was in- 
vited by them both to accompany his lady to Lincolnshire, 
where I shall yet stay, as I fear, until the ship is gone. I must, 
tlierefore, pray yom- pardon, that by the post I send this to 
London. I hope it may have pleased the Most High Lord 
of sea and land to bring Captain C.'s ship and dear Mr. DjTe 
unto you, and with him the council's letters, which answer 
the petition Sir Henry Vane and myself drew up, and 
the council, by Sii- Henry's mediation granted us, for the 
confomation of the charter, until the determination of the 
controversy. This determination, you may please to under- 
stand, is hindered by two main obstructions. The first is, 
the mighty war with the Dutch, which makes England, 
and Holland, and the nations tremble. This hath made 
the parliament set Sir Henry Vane and two or three more 
as commissioners to manage the war, which they have 
done, with much engaging the name of God with them, 
who hath appeared in helping sixty of ours against almost 



86 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

thi'ec hundred of their men-of-war, and, perchance, to the 
sinking and taking- about one hundred of theirs, and but 
one of ours, which was sunk by oui' own men. 

" Our second obstruction is the opposition of our adver- 
saries. Sir Arthur Haseh-ige, and Colonel Fenwicke — who 
hath married his daughter — Mr. Winslow, and Mr. Hopkins, 
both in great place ; and all the friends they can make in 
parliament and council, and all the priests, both presb}i:erian 
and independent ; so that we stand as two armies, ready to 
engage, observing the motions and postures each of the 
other, and yet shy each of other. Under God, the sheet- 
anchor of our ship is Sir Henry, who will do as the eye 
of God leads him; and he faithfully promised me that 
he would observe the motion of oiu' New England business, 
while I staid some ten weeks with his lady in Lincolnshire. 
Besides, here are great thoughts and preparation for a new 
parliament — some of our friends are apt to think another 
parliament will more favour us and om- cause than this has 
done. You may please to put my condition into your 
soul's cases ; remember I am a father and a husband. I 
have longed earnestly to return with the last ship, and 
with these ; yet I have not been Avilling to withdi-aw my 
shoulders from the burthen, lest it pinch others, and may 
fall heavy upon all ; except you are pleased to give to me a 
discharge. If you conceive it necessary for me still to 
attend this service, pray you consider if it be not convenient 
that my poor wife be encouraged to come over to me, and 
to wait together, on the good pleasure of God, for the end 
of this matter. You know my many weights hanging on 
me, how my own place stands, and how many reasons I 
have to cause me to make haste, yet I would not lose their 
estates, peace, and liberty, by leaving hastily. I write to 
my dear wife, my great desire of her coming while I stay, 
yet left it to the freedom of her spirit, because of the many 
dangers. Truly, at present the seas are dangerous, but not 
comparably so much, nor likely to be, because of the late 
great defeat of the Dutch, and their present sending to us 
offers of peace. 

" My dear friends, although it pleased God himself, by 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 87 

many favoui-s, to encourage me, yet please you to remember, 
that no man can stay here as I do, having a present employ- 
ment there, without much self-denial, which I beseech God 
for more, and for you also, that no private respects, or 
gains, or quarrels, may cause you to neglect the public and 
common safety, peace, and liberties. I beseech the blessed 
God to keep fresh in yom- thoughts what he hath done for 
Providence Plantations. 

" My dear respects to yom-selves, wives, and childi-en. I 
beseech the eternal God to be seen amongst you ; so prays 
yom- most faithful and affectionate friend and servant, 

"Roger Williams. 

" P.S. My love to all my Indian friends." 



CHAPTER XIII. 

Williams's correspondence with the daughter of sir edward 

COKE — HIS intercourse WITH SIR HENRY VANE, CROMWELL, 
AND MILTON. 

Amidst liis engrossing and important occupations, Roger 
Williams did not forget the family of his former benefactor, 
Sir Edward Coke. The following correspondence between 
him and Mrs. Sadleir, the daughter of Sir Edward, is now 
for the first time published : — 

" My much-honoured Friend, Mrs. Sadleir, — The 
never-dying honour and respect which I owe to that dear 
and honourable root and his branches, and, amongst the 
rest, to your much-honoured self, have emboldened me, once 
more, to inquire after your dear husband's and your life, 
and health, and welfare. This last winter I landed, once 
more, in my native country, being sent over from some 
parts of New England with some addresses to the parlia- 
ment. 

" My very great business, and my very great straits of 
time, and my very great journey homeward to my dear 
yoke-fellow and many children, I greatly fear will not 
permit me to present my ever-obliged duty and service to 
you, at Stondon, especially if it please God that I may 
despatch my affairs to depart with the ships within this 
fortnight. I am, therefore, humbly bold to crave your 
favom-able consideration, and pardon, and acceptance, of 
these my humble respects and remembrances. It hath 
pleased the Most High to carry me on eagles' wings, 
through mighty labours, mighty hazards, mighty sufferings, 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 89 

and to vouchsafe to use so base an instrument — as I humbly 
hope — to glorify himself, in many of my trials and suffer- 
ings, both amongst the English and barbarians. 

" I have been formerly, and since I landed, occasioned to 
take up the two-edged sword of God's Spirit, the word of 
God, and to appear in public in some contests against the 
ministers of Old and New England, as touching the true 
ministry of Christ and the soul freedoms of the people. 
Since I landed, I have published two or three things, and 
have a large discom-se at the press, but 'tis controversial, 
with which I will not trouble your meditations ; Only I 
crave the boldness to send you a plain and peaceable dis- 
course, of my own personal experiments, which, in a letter 
to my dear wife — upon the occasion of her great sickness 
near death — I sent her, being absent myself amongst the 
Indians. And being greatly obliged to Sir Henry Vane, 
junior — once governor of New England — and his lady, I 
was persuaded to publish it in her name, and humbly to 
present your honourable hands with one or two of them. 
I humbly pray you to cast a serious eye on the holy 
Scriptures, on which the examinations are grounded. I 
could have dressed forth the matter like some sermons 
which, formerly, I used to pen. But the Father of lights 
hath long since shown me the vanity and soul-deceit of 
such points and flourishes. I desire to know nothing, to 
profess nothing, but the Son of God, the King of souls and 
consciences ; and I desire to be more thankful for a reproof 
for aught I affirm than for applause and commendation. I 
have been oft glad in the wilderness of America to have 
been reproved for going in a wrong path, and to be directed 
by a naked Indian boy in my travels. How much more 
should we rejoice in the wounds of such as we hope love us 
in Christ Jesus, than in the deceitful kisses of soul-deceiving 
and soul-killing friends. 

" My much-honoured friend, that man of honour, and 
wisdom, and piety, your dear father, was often pleased to 
call me his son ; and truly it was as bitter as death to me 
when Bishop Laud pursued me out of this land, and my 
conscience was persuaded against the national church, and 



90 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

ceremonies, and bishops, beyond the conscience of your 
dear father. I say it was as bitter as death to me, when I 
rode Windsor way, to take ship at Bristow, and saw Stoke 
House, where the blessed man was ; and I then durst not 
acquaint him with my conscience, and my flight. But 
how many thousand times since have I had honom^able 
and precious remembrance of his person, and the life, the 
writings, the speeches, and the examples of that glorious 
light. And I may truly say, that beside my natural incli- 
nation to study and activity, his example, instruction, and 
encom'agement, have spurred me on to a more than ordi- 
nary, industrious, and patient com^se in my whole course 
hitherto. 

" What I have done and suffered — and I hope for the 
truth of God, according to my conscience — in Old and New 
England, I should be a fool in relating, for I desire to say, 
not to King David — as once Mephibosheth — but to King 
Jesus, ' What is thy servant, that thou shouldest look uj)on 
such a dead dog ? ' And I would not tell yourself of this, 
but that you may acknowledge some beams of his holy 
wisdom and goodness, who hath not suffered all your own 
and your dear father's smiles to have been lost upon so 
poor and despicable an object. I confess I have many 
adversaries, and also many friends, and divers eminent. It 
hath pleased the general himself to send for me, and to 
entertain many discourses with me at several times ; which, 
as it magnifies his christian nobleness and com^tesy, so 
much more doth it magnify His infinite mercy and good- 
ness, and wisdom, who hath helpt me, poor worm, to sow 
that seed in doing and suffering — I hope for God — that as 
your honourable father was wont to say, he that shall 
harrow what I have soAvn, must rise early. And yet I am 
a worm and nothing, and desire only to find my all in the 
blood of an holy Sa^doui-, in whom I desu-e to be 
" Your honoured, 

" Most thankful, and faithful servant, 

"Roger AVilliams. 

" My humble respects presented to Mr. Sadleir. 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 91 

" From my lodgings near St. Martin's, at Mr. Davis his 
house, at the sign of the Swan." 

" For my much-honom'ed, kind friend, Mistress Sadleir, 
at Stondon, Puckridge, these." 

" Mr. Williams, — Since it has pleased God to make the 
prophet David's complaint om-s (Ps. Ixxix.) : ' O God, the 
heathen,' &c., and that the apostle St. Peter has so long 
ago foretold, in his second epistle, the second chapter, by 
whom these things should be occasioned, I have given over 
reading many books, and, therefore, with thanks, have 
returned yom^s. Those that I now read, besides the Bible, 
are, first, the late king's book ; Hooker's Ecclesiastical 
Polity ; Reverend Bishop Andrews's Sermons, vdth his 
other divine meditations ; Dr. Jer. Taylor's works ; and 
Dr. Tho. Jackson upon the Creed. Some of these my dear 
father was a great admirer of, and would often call them 
the glorious lights of the church of England. These 
lights shall be my guide ; I wish they may be yours : for 
your new lights that are so much cried up, I believe, in the 
conclusion, they will prove but dark lanterns ; therefore I 
dare not meddle with them. 

" Your friend in the old way, 

" Anne Sadleir." 



" My much-honoured, kind Friend, Mrs. Sadleir, — 
My humble respects premised to your much-honom-ed self, 
and Mr. Sadleii', humbly wishing you the saving knowledge 
and assurance of that life which is eternal, when this poor 
minute's dream is over. In my poor span of time, I have 
been oft in the jaws of death, sickening at sea, shipwreckt 
on shore, in danger of arrows, swords, and bullets: and 
yet, methinks, the most high and most holy God hath 
reserved me for some service to his most glorious and eternal 
majesty. 

" I think, sometimes, in this common shipwreck of man- 
kind, wherein we all are either floating or sinking, de- 
spairing or struggling for Kfe, why should I ever faint in 



92 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

striving, as Paul saith, in hopes to save myself, to save 
others — to call, and cry, and ask, what hope of saving, 
what hope of life, and of the eternal shore of mercy ? Your 
last letter, my honoured friend, I received as a bitter 
sweeting — as all, that is under the sun, is — sweet, in that 
I hear from you, and that you continue stri^dng for life 
eternal ; bitter, in that we differ about the way, in the 
midst of the dangers and distresses. 

" O blessed be the hour that ever we saw the light, and 
came into this vale of tears, if yet, at last, in any way, we 
may truly see our woful loss and shipwreck, and gain the 
shore of life and mercy. You were pleased to direct me to 
divers books, for my satisfaction. I have carefully en- 
deavoured to get them, and some I have gotten ; and upon 
my reading, I pm-pose, with God's help, to render you an 
ingenuous and candid accomit of my thoughts, result, &c. 
At present, I am humbly bold to pray yom- judicious and 
loving eye to one of mine. 

" 'Tis ti'ue, I cannot but expect your distaste of it ; and 
yet my cordial deske of your soul's peace here, and eternal, 
and of contributing the least mite toward it, and my humble 
respects to that blessed root of which you spring, force me to 
tender my acknowledgments, which, if received or rejected, 
my cries shall never cease that one eternal life may give us 
meeting, since this present minute hath such bitter partings. 

" For the scope of this rejoinder, if it please the Most 
High to direct your eye to a glance on it, please you to 
know, that at my last being in England, I ^Tote a dis- 
com-se entitled, * The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for 
Cause of Conscience.' I bent my charge against Mr. Cotton 
especially, your standard-bearer of New English ministers. 
That discourse he since answered, and calls his book, ' The 
Bloody Tenent made white in the Blood of the Lamb.' 
This rejoinder of mine, as I humbly hope, unwasheth his 
washings, and proves that in soul matters no weapons but 
soul weapons are reaching and effectual. 

" I am yom* most im worthy servant, yet unfeignedly 
respective, 

"Roger Williams. 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 93 

" For his much-hpnoured, kind friend, Mrs. Anne Sad- 
leir, at Stondon, in Hartfordshire, near Puckridge." 

" Sir, — I thank God my blessed parents bred me up in 
the old and best religion, and it is my glory that I am a 
member of the chui'ch of England, as it was when all the 
reformed chm'ches gave her the right hand. When I cast 
mine eye upon the frontispiece of your book, and saw it 
entitled ' the Bloudy Tenent,' I durst not adventure to look 
into it, for fear it should bring into my memory the much 
blood that has of late been shed, and which I would fain 
forget ; therefore I do, with thanks, return it. I cannot call 
to mind any blood shed for conscience : — some few that 
went about to make a rent in our once well-governed church 
were punished, but none suffered death. But tliis I know, 
that since it has been left to every man's conscience to fancy 
what religion he list, there has more christian blood been 
shed than was in the ten persecutions. And some of that 
blood will, I fear, cry till the day of judgment. But you 
know what the Scripture says, that when there was no king 
in Israel, every man did that which was right in his own eyes, 
— but what became of that, the sacred story will tell you. 

" Thus entreating you to trouble me no more in this kind, 
and wishing you a good jom^ney to your charge in New 
Providence, I rest 

" Your Friend, ix the Old and Best Way." 



" My honoured, kind Friend, Mrs. Sadleir, — I 
greatly rejoiced to hear from you, although now an opposite 
to me, even in the highest points of heaven and eternity. 

" Two things your lines express : — First, yom- confidence 
in your own old way, &c. 

"Second. Civility and gentleness in that — not being 
pleased to accept my respects and labours presented — yet 
you gently, with thanks and your reason, return them. I 
shall not be so sorry you differ from me, if yet the Father 
of spirits please to vouchsafe you a spirit of christian 
searching and examination. In hope of which I shall 
humbly consider of the particulars of your letter. 



94 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

" 1. That yoTi think an heap of timber or pile of stones 
to be God's sanctuary now. (Ps. Ixxix. 1.) In Christ's 
esteem, and in gospel language, that you think those to be 
false teachers and prophets (2 Pet. ii. 1) who are not^ — after 
the old way — distinguished by the canonical colours of 
white, red, black, &:c. 

" That you admire the king's book, and Bp. Andrews his 
sermons, and Hooker's Polity, &c., and profess them to be 
your lights and guides, and desii-e them mine, and believe 
the new lights will prove dark lanterns, &c. I am far 
from wondering at it, for all tliis have I done myself, until 
the Father of spirits mercifully persuaded mine to swallow 
down no longer without chewing ; to chew no longer 
without tasting; to taste no longer without begging the 
Holy Spirit of God to enlighten and enliven mine against 
the fear of men, tradition of fathers, or the favour or custom 
of any men or times. 

" 2. I now find that the church and sanctuary of Christ 
Jesus consists not of dead but living stones.* Is not a parish 
or a national chm-ch forced — to the pretended bed oi 
Chiist's worship^ — by laws and swords Pf 

" His true lovers are volunteers, born of his Spirit, the now 
only holy nation and royal priesthood (1 Pet. ii., Ps. ex.) 
I find that, in respect of ministerial function and office, 
such ministers, not only popish but protestant, not only 
episcopal but presbyterian, not only presbyterian but inde- 
pendent also, are all of them, one as well as another, false 
prophets and teachers, so far as they are liirelings, and 
make a trade and living of preaching (John x.), as I have 
lately opened in my " Discourse of the Hireling Ministry 
none of Chi'ist's." 
' " 3. I have read those books you mention, and the king's 
book, which commends two of them, Bp. Andi-ews's and 
Hooker's — yea, and a tliird also, Bp. Laud's : and as for 
the king, I knew his person, vicious, a swearer from his 
youth, and an oppressor and persecutor of good men (to say 
nothing of his own father), and the blood of so many 
hundi'ed thousands English, Irish, Scotch, French, lately 
* 1 Pet. ii. 3, 4. f Cant, i, 16. 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 95 

charged upon liim. Against his and his blasphemous 
father's cruelties, your own dear father, and many precious 
men, shall rise up shortly and cry for vengeance. 

"4. But for the book itself — if it be his — and theirs 
you please to mention, and thousands more, not only pro- 
testants of several sects, but of some papists and Jesuits 
also — famous for worldly repute, &c. — I have found them 
sharp and witty, plausible and delightful, devout and 
pathetical. And I have been amazed to see the whole 
world of owe forefathers, mse and gallant, wondering after 
the glory of the Romish learning and worship. (Rev. xiii.) 
But amongst them all whom I have so diligently read and 
heard, how few express the simplicity, the plainness, the 
meekness, and true humility of the learning of the Son 
of God. 

" 5. But, at last, it pleased the God and Father of mercies 
to persuade mine heart of the merely formal, customary, 
and traditional professions of Christ Jesus, with which the 
world is filled. I see that the Jews believe Christ Jesus 
was a deceiver, because he came not with external pomps 
and excellency. 

" The Tui'ks — so many millions of them — prefer their 
Mahomet before Chi-ist Jesus, even upon such carnal and 
werldly respects, and yet avouch themselves to be the only 
Muselmanni or true believers. The catholics account us 
heretics, diabloes, &c. ; and why ? but because we worship 
not such a golden Christ and his glorious vicar and lieutenant. 
The several sects of common protestants content themselves 
with a traditional worsliip, and boast they are no Jews, no 
Tm-ks,* nor catholics, and yet forget their own formal dead 
faith,t dead hope, dead joys, and yet, nescio vos, I know you 
not, depart from me, which shall be thundered out to many 
gallant professors and confidents, who have held out a lamp 
and form of religion, yea, and possibly of godliness too, and 
yet have denied the power and life of it. 

" Therefore, my much-honom^ed friend, while you believe 
the darkness of the new lights, and profess your confidence, 
and desii-e of my walking with you in the old way : I most 
* Matt. vii. 21, 22. f 2 Tim. iii. 9. 



96 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

humbly pray so much. Berean civility at your ladyship's 
hands as to search and remember — 

" 1. First, the Lord Christ's famous resolution of that 
question put to him, as touching the number that shall be 
saved (Luke xiii. 24), ' Strive to enter in at the strait 
gate; for many shall seek to enter, and shall not be 
able.' 

" 2ndly. There is an absolute necessity (not so of a true 
order of mmistry, baptism, &c., but) of a true regeneration 
and new birth, without which it is impossible to enter into 
or to see the kingdom of God. (John. iii. &c.) 

" 3rdly. As to the rehgion and the worship of God, the 
conunon religion of the whole world, and the nations of it, 
it is but customary and traditional, from father to son, from 
which (old ways, &c.), traditions, Chi'ist Jesus delivers his, 
not with gold and silver, but with his precious blood. 
(1 Pet. i. 18, 19.) 

" 4thly. "Without spiritual and diligent examination of 
our hearts, it is impossible that we can attain true soHd 
joy and comfort, either in point of regeneration or worship, 
or whatever we do. (2 Cor. xiii. 5 ; Rom. xiv. 23.) 

" 5thly. In the examination ' of both these — personal 
regeneration and worship — the hearts of all the children 
of men are most apt to cheat, and cozen, and deceive 
themselves : yeaij and the wiser a man is, the more apt and 
willing he is to be deceived. (Jer. xvii. ; Gal. vi. ; 1 Cor. 
iii. 18.) 

" 6thly. It is impossible there should be a true search, 
without the Holy Spirit, who searcheth all things, yea, the 
deep things of God. (Rom. viii. ; Ps. cxliii. 10.) 

" Lastly. God's Spirit persuade th the hearts of his true 
servants : First, to be willing to be searcht by him, which 
they exceedingly beg of him, with holy fear of self-deceit 
and hypocrisy. 

" Second. To be led by him in the way everlasting : (Ps. 
cxxxix.), whether it seem old in respect of institution, or 
new in respect of restoration. This I humbly pray for your 
precious soul, of the God and Father of mercies, even your 
eternal joy and salvation. Earnestly desirous to be in the 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 97 

old "vvay, which is the narrow way, which leads to life, 
which few find. 

" Your most humble, though most unworthy servant, 

"Roger Williams." 

" My honoured Friend, since you please not to read mine, 
let me pray leave to request your reading of one book of 
your own authors. I mean the ' Liberty of Prophesying,' 
penned by (so called) Dr. Jer. Taylor. In the which is 
excellently asserted the toleration of differing religions, 
yea, in a respect, that of the papists themselves, which is a 
new way of soul freedom, and yet is the old way of Christ 
Jesus, as all his holy Testament declares. 

" I also humbly wish that you may please to read over 
impartially Mr. Milton's answer to the king's book." 



" Mr. Williams, — I thought my first letter would have 
given you so much satisfaction, that, in that kind, I should 
never have heard of you aijy more ; but it seems you have 
a face of brass, so that you cannot blush. But since you 
press me to it, I must let you know, as I did before 
(Ps. Ixxix.), that the prophet David there complains that 
the heathen had defiled the holy temple, and made Jerusa- 
lem a heap of stones. And our blessed Saviour, Vv^hen he 
whipt the buyers and sellers out of the temple, told them 
that they had made his Father's house a den of thieves. 
Those were but material temples, and commanded by God 
to be built, and his name there to be worshipped. The 
living temples are those that the same prophet, in the psalm 
before mentioned (verse the 2nd and 3rd), ' The dead bodies 
of thy servants have they given to the fowls of the air, and 
the flesh of thy saints to the beasts of the land. Their blood 
have they shed like water,' &c. And these were the living 
temples whose loss the prophet so much laments ; and had 
he lived in these times, he would have doubled his lamenta- 
tions. For the foul and false aspersions you have cast upon 
that king, of ever-blessed memory, Charles, the martyr, I 

H 



98 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

protest I trembled when I read them, and none but such a 
villain as yourself would have wrote them. Wise Solomon 
has taught me another lesson in his 24th of his Proverbs, 
at 21st verse, to fear God and the king, and not to 
meddle with them that are given to change. Mark well 
that. The 8th of EccL, verse the 2nd, ' I counsel thee J,to 
keep the king's commandment, and that in regard of the 
oath of God.' Verse the 20th of the 10th chap., ' Cm-se not 
the king, no, not in thy thought ;' and, if I be not mistaken, 
the fifth commandment is the crown commandment. Rom. 
xiii., the 1st and 2nd verses, ' Let every soul be subject unto 
the higher powers, for,' &c. ; with many more places to the 
same purpose. Thus, you see, I have the law, with the Old 
and New Testament, on my side. 

" But it has been the lot of the best kings to lie under the 
lash of ill tongues. Witness blessed David, who was a man 
after God's own heart, curst by mcked Shimei, his own 
subject, and called a man of blood ; and good Hezekiah was 
railed on by a foul-mouthed Rabshakeh ; but I do not re- 
member that they were commended, in any place of scrip- 
tm*e, for so doing. For the blood you mention, which has 
been shed in these times, which you would father upon the 
late king, there is a book called the History of Independency 
— a book worth your reading — that will tell you by whom 
all this christian blood has been shed. If you cannot get 
that, there is a sermon in print of one Paul Knells, the 
text the first of Amos, verse the second, that Avill inform 
you. 

" For Milton's book, that you desire I should read, if I be 
not mistaken, that is he that has wrote a book of the law- 
fulness of divorce ; and, if report says true, he had, at that 
time, two or three wives living. This, perhaps, were good 
doctrine in New England ; but it is most abominable in Old 
England. For his book that he wrote against the late king 
that you would have me read, you should have taken notice 
of God's judgment upon him, who stroke him -svith blind- 
ness ; and, as I have heard, he was fain to have the help of 
one Andrew Marvell, or else he could not have finished that 
most accursed libel. God has began his judgment upon him 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 99 

here — his punishment -vvill be hereafter in hell. But have 
you seen the answer to it ? If you can get it, I assure you it 
is worth your reading. 

" I have also read Taylor's book of the Liberty of Pro- 
phesj-ing ; though it please not me, yet I am sm-e it does 
you, or else I [know]* you [would]* not have WTote to me 
to have read it, I say, it and you would make a good fire. 
But have you seen his Divine Institution of the Office 
Ministerial ? I assure you that is both worth yom- read- 
ing and practice. Bishop Laud's book against Fisher I 
have read long since; wliich, if you have not done, let me 
tell you that he has deeply womided the pope ; and, I 
believe, howsoever he be slighted, he will rise a saint, when 
many seeming ones, such as you are, will rise devils. 

" I cannot conclude without putting you in mind how 
dear a lover and great an admirer my father was of the 
liturgy of the church of England, and w^ould often say, no 
reformed clnu'ch had the like. He was constant to it, both 
in his life and at liis death. I mean to walk in his steps ; 
and, truly, when I consider who were the composers of it," 
and how they sealed the truth of it with their blood, I 
cannot but wonder why it should now of late be thus con- 
temned. By what I have now writ, you know how I stand 
affected. I will walk as directly to heaven as I can, in 
which place, if you will turn from being a rebel, and fear 
God and obey the king, there is hope I may meet you there : 
howsoever, trouble me no more with youi* letters, for they 
are very troublesome to her that wishes you in the place 
from whence you came."t 

* These words are not in the MS. 

t This correspondence, between Roger Williams and Mrs. 
Sadleir, is copied from the original manuscripts in the library of 
Trinity college, Cambridge. Like many of Williams's letters, they 
are without date ; but the allusions to his works, and other circum- 
stances, clearly show that they were written during his second visit, 
in 1652-3. The writer has examined the originals of the letters ; 
and for the knowledge of their existence he is indebted to the 
courtesy of the Hon. George Bancroft, author of the History of the 
United States, and late minister plenipotentiary to Great Britain 



100 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

Near the direction, on tlie outside, of Williams's first 
letter, there is the following note by Mrs. Sadleir : — 

" This Roger Williams, when he was a youth, would, in 
a short hand, take sermons and speeches in the Star 
Chamber, and present them to my dear father. He, seeing 
so hopeful a youth, took such liking to him that he sent 
him in to Sutton's Hospital, and he was the second that was 
placed there ; full little did he think that he would have 
proved such a rebel to God, the king, and his country. I 
leave kis letters, that, if ever he has the face to return into 
his native country, Tybm-n may give him welcome." 

These letters present a lively pictm-e of the influence of 
party spirit upon social intercom^se, at that remarkable 
period. The gratitude and humility of Williams are finely 
contrasted with the cold repulsiveness, and, at last, rude 
insolence of his correspondent, whose final letter pours 
forth as much venom as could well flow from a lady's pen. 
The concentrated essence of it, in her postscript, reminds us 
of the mutation in human affairs. The rebel she denounces 
has acquired a nobler fame than even that of the acute 
lawyer, her father ; while, if her own name is rescued from 
oblivion, she owes it to her accidental connexion with the 
man she consigns to Tyburn. 

We may here observe, that while Williams was in Eng- 
land, in addition to his numerous avocations, his exertions 
were called forth in the metropolis " for the supply of the 
poor with wood dm-ing the stop of the coals from Newcastle, 
and the mutinies of the poor," in consequence of the high 
price of every species of fuel. He also refers to oppor- 
tunities he had to " run the road of preferment, as well in 
Old as in New England." 

Though he made great sacrifices in order to undertake 
his present agency, his visit, at this time, to the mother- 
country must have been peculiarly gratifying. His official 
duties brought him into frequent intercourse with many of 
the eminent statesmen who then adorned the legislature, 
and wielded the power of the state. He renewed his 
friendship with Sir Henry Vane, the former governor of 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 101 

Massachusetts, and enjoyed his hospitality, at his country- 
seat, for many weeks. He secui^ed on behalf of his beloved 
colony the powerful influence of Cromwell, with whom he 
had frequent interviews. His hours of leisure were often 
passed with a kindred spii'it, of transcendent genius — 
Milton — to whom he refers in his subsequent correspond- 
ence. Imagination conceives those two great men, repre- 
sentatives of a brighter futm-e, discussing the true nature 
of that religious liberty, which few besides themselves 
clearly discerned. We can fancy them applying the simple 
principle of the non-interference of the state with religion 
to the solution of the vexed questions which still continued 
to harass and divide the English chm^ch reformers. And 
if their hopes of the speedy triumph of this principle in 
England sometimes failed, they would rejoice together that 
there was at least one spot on the earth's wide sm-face, 
where conscience, with joyful exultation, might exclaim, 
I am free ! 



CHAPTER XIV. 

WILLIAMS RETURNS TO AMERICA — HIS LETTER TO GOVERNOR 
WINTHROP — RE-ORGANIZATION OF THE GOVERNMENT — HE IS 
ELECTED PRESIDENT OF THE COLONY — HIS LETTER TO THE 
GOVERNMENT OF MASSACHUSETTS — HIS LETTER ON CIVIL AND 
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 

Though it appears that inducements had been held out to 
Williams to remain in England, yet nothing could detain 
him from his beloved colony. The objects of his mission 
not being fully accomplished, he left the remainder of the 
business in the hands of Mr. Clarke, and returned, early in 
the summer of 1654. He landed at Boston, bringing with 
him an order from the lord-protector's comicil, requiring the 
authorities of Massachusetts to allow him, in future, to 
embark or land in their territories without molestation. 

Soon after his retm-n, he addi-essed a letter to his friend, 
Mr. Winthi'op, afterwards governor of Connecticut : a 
gentleman greatly respected as a christian, a philosopher, 
and a magistrate. In the following passage, he relates 
several incidents connected with his visit to England : — 

" For my much-honoured, kind Friend, Mr. John 

WiNTHROP, AT PeQUOD. 

^^Providenee, July 12th, '54. 

" Sir, — I was humbly bold to salute you from our native 
country ; and now, by the gracious hand of the Lord, once 
more saluting this wilderness, I crave yom- w^onted patience 
to my wonted boldness, who ever honoured and loved, and 
ever shall, the root and branches of yom* dear name. How 
joyful, therefore, was I to hear of yom- abode as a stake 
and pillar in these parts, and of your healths — yom* own, 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 103 

Mrs. Winthrop, and your branches — although some sad 
niixtui-es we have had from the sad tidings (if true) of the 
late loss and cutting off of one of them. 

" Sii', I was lately upon the wing to have waited on you 
at your house. I had disposed all for my jom-ney, and my 
staff was in my hand, but it pleased the Lord to interpose 
some impediments, so that I am compelled to a suspension 
for a season, and choose at present thus to visit you. I had 
no letters for you, but yom's were well. I was at the lodg- 
ings of Major Winthrop and Mr. Peters, but I missed them. 
Your brother flourisheth in good esteem, and is eminent for 
maintaining the freedom of the conscience, as to matters of 
belief, religion, and worship. Yom' father Peters* preacheth 
the same doctrine, though not so zealously as some years 
since ; yet cries out against New-EngUsh rigidities and 
persecutions 

" Surely, sii% yom- father, and all the people of God in 
England, formerly called Puritanus Anglicanus, of late 
Roimdheads, now the Sectarians (as more or less cut off 
from the parishes), are now in the saddle and at the helm, 
so high that 7ion datur descensus nisi cadendo. Some cheer 
up their spirits with the impossibility of another fall or 
turn ; so doth Major-Gen. Harrison, and Mr. Feake, and 
Mr. John Simpson, now in "Windsor castle for preacliing 
against this last change, and against the protector as an 
usurper, Richard III., &c. So did many think of the last 
pai'liament, who were of the vote of fifty-six against priests 
and tithes, opposite to the vote of the fifty-four who were 
for them, at least for a while. Major-Gen. Harrison was the 
second in the nation of late, when the kving general and 
himself joined against the former long parliament, and 
dissolved them; but now being the head of the fifty-six 
party, he was confined by the j)rotector and council, within 
five miles of his father's house, in Staffordshire. That 
sentence he not obeying, he told me (the day before my 
leaving London) he was to be sent prisoner into Harford- 
shire. Sui-ely, sii', he is a very gallant, most deserving, 
heavenly man, but most high flown for the kingdom of the 
* Mr. Winthrop had married a daughter of the Hev. Hugh Peters. 



104 LIFE OF KOGER WILLIAMS. 

saiiits. others, as to my knowledge, the protector. Lord 
President Lawi'ence, and others at helm, with Sir Henry- 
Vane (retu-ed into Lincolnshire, yet daily missed and com-ted 
for his assistance), are not so full of that faith of miracles, 
but still imagine changes and persecutions 

" Sir, I know not how far yom^ judgment hath concmTed 
%vith the design against the Dutch. I must acknowledge 
my mourning for it, and when I heard of it at Portsmouth, 
I confess I wrote letters to the protector and president fi'om 
thence ; as against a most uningenuous and unchi'istian 
design, at such a time when the world stood gazing at the 
so famous treaty for peace, which was then between the 
two states, and near finished when we set sail. Much I can 
tell you of the answer I had from com-t, and I think of the 
answers I had from heaven — viz., that the Lord M'Ould 
graciously retard us mitil the tidings of peace (from 
England) might quench the fire in the kindling of it. 

" Sir, I had word from the lord president, at Ports- 
mouth, that the council had passed three letters as to our 
business. First, to encom-age us ; second, to om- neighbour 
colonies not to molest us ; third, in exposition of that word 
dominion, in the late frame of the government of England 
— viz., that liberty of conscience should be maintained in 
all American plantations, &c. 

" Sir, a great man in America told me that he thought 
New England would not bear it. I hope better, and that 
not only the necessity, but the equity-, piety, and Christianity 
of that freedom will more and more sliine forth, not to 
licentiousness (as all mercies are apt to be abused), but to 
the beauty of chiistianity, and the lustre of true faith in 
God and love to poor mankind, Szc. 

" Sir, I have desii-es of keeping home. I have long had 
scruples of selling the natives aught, but what may bring 
or tend to civilizing. It pleased the Lord to call me for 
some time, and with some persons, to practise the Hebrew, 
the Greek, Latin, French, and Dutch. The secretary of the 
council, Mr. Milton, for my Dutch I read him, read me many 
more languages. Grammar rules begin to be esteemed a 
tyranny. I taught two yomig gentlemen, a parliament- 



I 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 105 

man's sons, as we teach our childi-en English — hj words, 
phrases, and constant talk, &c. I have begun with mine 
own three boys, who labour besides ; others are coming- 
to me. 

*' Sir, I shall rejoice to receive a word of your healths, 
of the Indian wars, and to be ever yours, 

"R.W." 

Here we have proof of the extent of Williams's acquii'e- 
ments as a linguist, while we see Milton and himself in the 
very interesting relation of mutual instructors. It is pro- 
bable that he " taught two young gentlemen, a parliament- 
man's sons," as a mode of providing for his own support at 
this period. 

On his arrival at Providence, his first object was to re- 
store union among the several towns, and re-establish the 
government on its former basis, in accordance with the 
order of the council of state. The accomx^lishment of this 
was no easy task, in consequence of the petty jealousies 
and local differences, which had been artfully fomented by 
some tm-bulent spirits, who thought disorder more pro- 
pitious to their interests than good government. In this 
crisis, he addressed a conciliatory letter to the citizens of 
Providence, in which he alludes in affecting terms to his 
trials and sacrifices in their behalf, and urges them to bury 
their animosities and unite in the reorganization of the 
government on its old foundations. His efforts to promote 
union were also enforced, by a letter entrusted to him by 
Sir Henry Vane, and addressed to the inhabitants of the 
colony.* 

By the skilful policy and persuasive earnestness of 
Williams, Providence and the other towns soon after 
appointed commissioners, who met on the 31st of August, 
1654, and the articles of union were finally agreed upon, 
under the existing charter. 

Williams was requested, also, by the citizens of Provi- 
dence, to prepare an answer to Sir Henry Vane's letter in 

* A curious extract from a work of Sir H. Vane will be found in 
the Appendix II. 



106 LIFE OF EOGER WILLIAMS. 

the name of tlie town. In this answer, dated August 27, 
1654, commencing with an expression of regret at the late 
retirement of Sir Henry " from the helm of public affairs," 
he speaks of his " loving lines " to the colony as " the sweet 
fruits of his rest." " Thus the sun, when he retires his 
brightness from the world, yet from under the very clouds 
we perceive his presence, and enjoy some light, and heat, 
and sweet refi-eshings." He points out the causes which 
had distiu'bed the colony, and concludes by expressing the 
hope " that, when we are gone and rotten, om- posterity 
and children after us shall read, in our town records, your 
pious and favourable letters, and loving kindness to us, 
and this our answer, and real endeavour after peace and 
righteousness." 

The &st general election was held at Warwick, on the 
12th of September, when Roger Williams was chosen 
president of the colony. At the same time, he was also 
appointed, together with Mr. Gregory Dexter, to " draw up 
and send letters of humble thanksgiving to his highness, 
the lord protector, and Sir Henry Vane, Mr. Holland, 
and Mr. John Clarke, in the name of the colony ; and 
Mr. Williams is desii'ed to subscribe them, by virtue of his 
office." 

The auspicious union of the settlements, after an unhappy 
division of several years, was mainly accomplished by the 
wisdom and firmness of Williams. One of his first acts 
after entering upon the duties of his presidency, was to 
interpose his friendly offices in order to prevent hostilities 
between the imited colonies and some of the neighbouring 
Indian tribes. For this pm-pose, he addressed a letter to 
the government of Massachusetts, from which we present 
the following extracts : — 

" Providence, oth October, '54, 

"Much honoured Sirs, — I truly wish you peace, and pray 
your gentle acceptance of a word, I hope not mireasonable. 

" We have in these parts a sound of yom- meditations of 
war against these natives, amongst whom we dwell. I 
consider that war is one of those three great sore plagues 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 107 

witli which it pleaseth God to afflict the sons of men. I 
consider, also, that I refused, lately, many offers in my 
native country, out of a sincere desii'e to seek the good and 
peace of this. 

" I remember, that, upon the express advice of your ever- 
honoured Mr. Winthrop, deceased,* I first adventured to 
begin a plantation, among the thickest of these barbarians. 

" That in the Pequod wars, it pleased your honom-ed 
government to employ me in the hazardous and weighty 
service of negotiating a league between yourselves and the 
Narragansetts, when the Pequod messengers, who sought 
the Narragansetts' league against the English, had almost 
ended that my work and life together. 

" That at the subscribing of that solemn league, which, 
by the mercy of the Lord, I had procured with the Narra- 
gansetts, your government was pleased to send unto me the 
copy of it, subscribed by all hands there, which yet I keep 
as a monument and a testimony of peace and faithfulness 
between you both. 

" That, since that time, it hath pleased the Lord so to 
order it, that I have been more or less interested and used 
in all your great transactions of war or peace between the 
English and the natives, and have not spared purse, nor 
pains, nor hazards (very many times), that the whole land, 
English and natives, might sleep in peace securely. 

" That in my last negotiations in England with the par- 
liament, council of state, and his highness, I have been 
forced to be known so much that if I should be silent I 
should not only betray mine own peace and yours, but also 
should be false to their honourable and princely names, 
whose loves and affections, as well as their supreme autho- 
rity, are not a little concerned in the peace or war of this 
country. 

" At my last departure for England I was importuned by 

* Governor Winthrop died at Boston, on the 26th of March, 1649, 
aged sixty-two years. He was eleven times chosen governor of 
Massachusetts. He was one of the purest and most gifted men of 
his age, and spent his large estate in the public service. His son 
and grandson were successively governors of Connecticut. 



108 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

the Narragansett sachems, and especially by Ninigret, to 
present theii* petition to the high sachems of England, that 
they might not be forced from their religion, and, for not 
changing their religion, be invaded by war ; for they said 
they were daily visited with tln^eatenings by Indians that 
came from about the Massachusetts, that if they would not 
pray they should be destroyed by war. With this their 
petition I acquainted in private discourses divers of the 
chiefs of om- nation, and especially his highness, who, in 
many discourses I had with liim, never expressed the least 
displeasure, as hath been here reported, but in the midst of 
disputes ever expressed a high spii'it of love and gentleness, 
and was often pleased to please himself with very many 
questions, and my answers about the Indian affairs of this 
country, and after all hearing of yom-self and us, it hath 
pleased his highness and his council to grant, amongst 
other favours to this colony, some expressly concerning the 
very Indians, the native inhabitants of this jurisdiction. 

" I therefore humbly offer to your prudent and impartial 
view, first, these two considerable terms, it pleased the Lord 
to use to all that profess liis name. — Ilom. xii. 18. 

" I never was against the righteous use of the civil sword 
of men or nations, but yet, since all men of conscience or 
prudence ply to windward to maintain their wars to be de- 
fensive (as did both king and Scotch, and English, and 
Irish too in the late wars), I humbly pray yom* considera- 
tion, whether it be not only possible, but very easy, to live 
and die in peace with all the natives of this country. 

"For, secondly, are not all the English of this land 
generally a persecuted people from their native soil ? and 
hath not the God of peace and Father of mercies made 
these natives more friendly in this, than our native country- 
men in om- own land to us ? Have they not entered leagues 
of love, and to this day continued peaceable commerce with 
us ? Are not our families grown up in peace amongst them ? 
Upon which I humbly ask, how it can suit with chiistian 
ingenuity to take hold of some seeming occasions for their 
destruction, which, though the heads be only aimed at, yet 
all experience tells us, falls on the body and the innocent. 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 109 

"Thirdly, I pray it may be remembered how greatly 
the name of God is concerned iii this aflPair, for it cannot 
be hid how all England and other nations ring with the 
glorious conversion of the Indians of New England. You 
know how many books are dispersed tlu'oughout the nation 
on the subject (in some of them the Narragansett chief 
sachems are publicly branded for refusing to pray and be 
converted) — how all the pulpits in England have been com- 
manded to sound of tliis glorious work (I speak not ironi- 
cally, but only mention what all the printed books mention), 
and that by the highest command and authority of parlia- 
ment, and chm'chwardens went from house to house to 
gather supplies for this work. 

" Honoured sirs, whether I have been and am a 
friend to the natives' turning to ci\dlity and Christianity, 
and whether I have been instrumental, and desire so to be, 
according to my light, I will not trouble you with ; only I 
beseech you consider how the name of the most holy and 
jealous God may be preserved between the clashings of 
these two, viz., the glorious conversion of the Indians in 
New England, and the unnecessary wars and cruel destruc- 
tion of the Indians in New England. 

" Fourthly, I beseech you forget not that although we are 
apt to play with this plague of war more than with the 
other two, famine and pestilence, yet I beseech you consider 
how the present events of all wars that ever have been in 
the world have been wonderfully fickle, and the future 
calamities and revolutions wonderful in the latter end. 

" Heretofore, not having liberty of taking ship in your 
jurisdiction, I was forced to repak unto the Dutch, where 
my eyes did see that first breaking forth of that Indian war 
which the Dutch begun, upon the slaughter of some Dutch 
by the Indians, and they questioned not to finish it in a 
few days, insomuch that the name of peace, which some 
offered to mediate, was foolish and odious to them. But 
before we weighed anchor their bowries were in flames. 
Dutch and English were slain. Mine eyes saw their flames 
at theiL' towns, and the flights and huiTies of men, Avomen, 
and cliildi-en, the present removal of all that could for Hoi- 



110 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

land, and after vast expense andmntual slaughter of Dutch, 
English, and Indians, about four years, the Dutch were 
forced, to save their plantation from ruin, to make up 
a most unworthy and dishonourable peace with the In- 
dians 

" But, lastly, if any be yet zealous of kindling this fire 
for God, &c., I beseech that gentleman, whoever he be, to 
lay himself in the opposite scale, with one of the faii-est 
buds that ever the sun of righteousness cherished, Josiah ; 
that most zealous and melting-hearted reformer Avho would 
to war, and against warnings, and fell in most untimely 
death and lamentations, and now stands a pillar of salt to 
all succeeding generations 

" How much nobler were it and glorious to the name of 
God and yom- own, that no pagan should dare to use the 
name of an English subject who comes not out in some 
degree from barbarism to civility — forsaking their filthy 
nakedness, keeping some kind of cattle, which yet your 
comicils and commands may tend to — and as pious and 
prudent deceased ]Mr. Winthrop said, that civility may be 
a leading step to Christianity, is the hujnble desire of your 
most unfeigned in all services of love, 

"Roger Williams, 
of Pro-\ddence Colony, President." 

It appears that this letter had a salutary effect. Massa- 
chusetts, with a spirit that is honom-able to her rulers, was 
opposed to hostilities, and thus prevented a general war 
with the natives, although it had been already determined 
on by the commissioners of the united colonies, Williams 
had succeeded in restoring the regular operations of govern- 
ment, but the ofiice of president was at that time encom- 
passed with many difficulties. There were not wanting 
tm'bulent spirits who were uneasy and impatient under the 
restraints of law and order. During the early part of his 
administration, one of these addi'essed a seditious jjamphlet 
to the town of Providence, and was active in circulating it 
among the citizens, maintaining " that it was blood-guilti- 
ness, and against the rule of the gospel, to execute judg- 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. Ill 

ment upon transgressors against the private or public weal." 
This doctrine tended to the subversion of all civil society; 
yet; it is not surprising that in a community enjoying un- 
restricted freedom of opinion, some were found who would 
pervert the privilege into unbounded license. While such 
sentiments were propagated, WilUams could not remain 
silent, and accordingly addressed a letter to the town, in 
which he explicitly denies that he had ever given the 
slightest sanction to principles so hostile to the civil peace, 
and the dictates of reason and scriptm-e. He clearly shows 
that absolute liberty of conscience is quite consistent with 
the restraints of civil government ; and illustrates this 
position by a very ingenious allegory. The letter is copied 
from the records of the city of Providence : — 

" That ever I should speak or write a tittle, that tends to 
such an infinite liberty of conscience, is a mistake, and 
which I have ever disclaimed and abhorred. To prevent 
such mistakes, I shall at present only propose this case : 
There goes many a ship to sea, with many hundred souls in 
one ship, whose weal and woe is common, and is a true 
j)icture of a commonwealth, or a human combination or 
society. It hath fallen out sometimes, that both papists and 
protestants, Jews and Tm-ks, may be embarked in one 
ship ; upon which supposal I affirm, that all the liberty of 
conscience, that ever I pleaded for, turns upon these two 
hinges — that none of the papists, protestants, Jews, or 
Tm'ks, be forced to come to the ship's prayers or worship, 
nor compelled from theii' own particular prayers or worship, 
if they practise any. I fm-ther add, that I never denied, 
that notwithstanding this hberty, the commander of this 
ship ought to command the ship's com'se, yea, and also 
command that justice, peace, and sobriety, be kept and 
practised, both among the seamen and all the passengers. 
If any of the seamen refuse to perform their services, or 
passengers to pay their freight ; if any refuse to help, in 
person or purse, towards the common charges or defence ; 
if any refuse to obey the common laws and orders of the 
ship, concerning their common peace or preservation; if 



112 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

any shall mutiny and rise up against their commanders 
and officers ; if any should preach or write that there ought 
to be no commanders or officers, because all are equal in 
Christ, therefore no masters nor officers, no laws nor orders, 
no corrections nor punishments ; — I say, I never denied, but 
in such cases, whatever is pretended, the commander or 
commanders may judge, resist, compel and punish such 
transgressors, according to their deserts and merits. This, 
if seriously and honestly minded, may, if it so please the 
Father of lights, let in some light to such as willingly shut 
not their eyes. 

" I remain studious of your common peace and liberty, 

" Roger Williajis." 



CHAPTER XV. 

LETTER FROM CROIMWELL — TVLLLIAMS'S ATTEMPTS TO ESTABLISH 
FRIENDLY RELATIONS WITH MASSACHUSETTS — SEVERE LAWS 
AGAINST THE QUAKERS IN THE OTHER COLONIES — RHODE ISLAND 
REFUSES TO JOIN IN THE PERSECUTION — LETTER TO JOHN CLARKE 
— WILLIAMS RETIRES FROM THE PRESIDENCY. 

The current of afikirs did not yet flow quite smoothly in 
the little colony. Though a very large majority adhered 
to the cause of the commonwealth, yet a few royalists 
attempted to create factions. Complaints were made by 
the constituted authorities to Cromwell, who addressed the 
following letter to the colony : — 

" To our trusty and well-beloved the president, assistants, 
and inhabitants of Rhode Island, together with the rest 
of the Providence Plantations, in the Narragansett Bay, 
in New England. 

" Gentlemen, — Yom- agent here hath represented unto us 
some particulars concerning yom- government, which you 
judge necessary to be settled by us here. But by reason of 
the other great and weighty afiatrs of this commonwealth, 
we have been necessitated to defer the consideration of 
them to a further opportunity ; for the mean time we were 
willing to let you know that you are to proceed in your 
government according to the tenor of your charter, for- 
merly granted on that behalf; taking care of the peace and 
safety of those plantations, that neither thi-ough any intes- 
tine commotions, or foreign invasions, there do arise any 
detriment or dishonour to this commonwealth, or your- 
selves, as far as you, by your care and diligence, can 
I 



114 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

prevent. And as for the things which are before us, they 
shall, as soon as the other occasions will permit, receive a 
just and fitting determination. And so we bid you fare- 
well, and rest 

" Your very loving friend, 
" 29^/i March, 1655." * " Oliver P." 

The protector's interest in the colony, and his friendship 
for Williams, was manifested on this as well as many other 
occasions. In his letters, the latter repeatedly alludes to 
familiar conversations with Cromwell, to whom he was 
draAvn by a unity of opinion on the great question of re- 
ligious liberty. 

There is a tradition that these two distinguished men 
were remotely allied by birth ; and a fact, recorded in the 
genealogy of the Cromwell family, gives an air of pro- 
bability, at least, to this supj)osition. Cromwell's paternal 
ancestry is traced to Richard Williams, of Wales, who was 
knighted by Henry VIII. by the name of Cromwell, after 
liis uncle, whose heir he became.f 

The protector's letter served to strengthen the govern- 
ment, and, in pm-suance of his advice, the assembly im- 
mediately passed an act, declaring, that " if any person or 
persons be found, by the examination and judgment of the 
general court of commissioners, to be a ringleader or ring- 
leaders of factions or divisions among us, he or they shall 
be sent over at his or their own charges, as prisoners, to 
receive his or their trial or sentence, at the pleasure of liis 
highness and the lords of his comicil." This act shows, 
that while the legislature recognised the rights of con- 
science, they were resolved to enforce civil obedience. The 
prompt and resolute measm-es adopted by the authorities 
produced peace and good order among the settlements. 
Coddington and others gave in their allegiance to the 
colony, and the old form of government continued until the 
adoption of the charter of 1663. 

* Colony Records. 

t See a genealogy of the Cromwell family in Appendix III. 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 115 

Dmiiig the presidency of Williams, he made efforts to 
establish more friendly relations with the neighbouring- 
colonies, especially with Massachusetts. The people of 
Rhode Island were not allowed to procure fire-arms and 
ammunition from Boston, though they were exposed to 
imminent peril from the Indians, who were abundantly 
supplied from various quarters. In November, 1655, he 
addressed a letter to the general coui't of Massachusetts, in 
wliich he remonstrated in a fu'm, though courteous, tone 
against this oppressive policy, by which the inhabitants of 
Rhode Island seemed " to be devoted to the Indian shambles 
and massacres." A few months afterwards he wrote to the 
governor, Mr. Endicott, who invited him to visit Boston, 
that he might present his requests to the general court in 
person. The address he made to the court, in the name 
and by the appointment of his colony, was successful in 
obtaining some of the privileges that he had requested. 
This kindness he acknowledged in a brief note to the 
assembly, in which he says, "I do cordially promise for 
myself (and all I can persuade with), to study gratitude and 
faithfulness to your service." 

During the year 1656 a nmnber of the then new sect called 
quakers arrived in Boston, and began to promulgate their 
doctrines. The wild fanaticism of some of the early ad- 
herents of the sect forms a striking contrast to the quiet 
and consistent demeanoui- of the Friends of the present day. 
Experience had not yet been sufficient to teach Massa- 
chusetts the folly of interfering between God and man, and 
she attempted the utter extermination of these new heretics. 
A large number were fined, imprisoned, banished, and 
whipped, and by a sanguinary law, enacted October, 1658, 
punishing with death all quakers who should return into 
the jurisdiction after banishment, four persons were bar- 
barously executed. The persecution continued till Septem- 
ber, 1661, when an order was received from King Charles II. 
requiring that neither capital nor corporal punishment 
should be inflicted on them, but that offenders should be 
sent to England. The other colonies of New England 
passed severe laws against the quakers, and endeavoured to 



116 ■ LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

prevail on Rhode Island to join in the persecution. The 
commissioners of the united colonies addressed a letter to 
the president of Rhode Island, urging him to send away 
such quakers as were then in the colony, and prohibit the 
entrance of any in future ; but the government remaining 
true to their principle of " soul liberty," promptly refused 
to comply with the request. The general assembly, which 
met March 13, 1657, returned an answer to the commis- 
sioners in the following terms : — 

" Whereas freedom of different consciences to be protected 
from enforcements was the principal ground of our charter, 
both with respect to om- humble suit for it, as also to the 
true intent of the honourable and renowned parliament of 
England in granting of the same unto us, — which freedom 
we still prize as the greatest happiness that men can pos- 
sess in this world ; — therefore w^e shall, for the preservation 
of om' civil peace and order, the more seriously take notice 
that those people and any other that are here, or shall come 
amongst us, be impartially required, and to our utmost con- 
strained, to perform all civil duties requisite, towards the 
maintaining the right of his highness and the government 
of that most renowned commonwealth of England in this 
colony. And in case they the said people called quakers 
which are here, or shall arise or come among us, do refuse 
to submit to the doing all duties aforesaid, then we resolve 
to make use of the first opportmiity to inform our agent re- 
siding hi England."* 

This reply was not satisfactory to the commissioners, and 
the next autumn they wrote again to the assembly, who re- 
turned an answer, dated October 13, 1657, in which they 
use the following language : — 

" As concerning these quakers (so called), which are now 
among us, we have no law whereby to punish any for only 
declaring by words, &c., their minds and understandings 
concerning the things and ways of God, as to salvation and 
an eternal condition. And we find, moreover, that in those 
places where these people, aforesaid, in this colony, are most 
of all suffered to declare themselves freely, and are only 
* Colony Records. 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 117 

opposed by arguments in discourse, there they least of all 
desii'e to come."* 

The letter then expressed disapprobation of the conduct 
of some of the quakers, and promised at the next general 
assembly that proper measures should be adopted to prevent 
any " bad effects of their doctrines and endeavom'S." 

The other colonies appear to have been greatly incensed 
by the firm and consistent adherence of Rhode Island to 
the glorious prmciples of her founder. The commissioners 
wrote a third time to the general assembly, requu^ing the 
colony to unite in a general persecution of the quakers, 
under the penalty of being herself excluded from all com- 
mercial intercom'se with the rest of New England. This 
extraordinary attempt to force the citizens of Rhode Island 
from their cherished principles was unavailing. 

Apprehensive, however, that attempts might be made to 
accomplish this object indirectly they charged John Clarke, 
their agent at the court of the protector, to plead their 
cause that " they may not be compelled to exercise any 
civil power over men's consciences." The following letter 
to Mr. Clarke was written by a committee appointed by 
the general assembly, November 5, 1658. It reflects great 
credit upon Rhode Island, and shows how far she was in 
advance of the other colonies and of the age : — ■ 

" Worthy Sir and trusty Friend, Mr. Clarke, — ^We 
have found not only your ability and diligence, but also your 
love and care to be such concerning the welfare and pros- 
perity of this colony, since you have been entrusted with the 
more public affairs thereof, surpassing that no small benefit 
which formerly we had of yom- presence here at home, that 
we in all straits and incumbrances are emboldened to repair 
to you for your further and continued comisel, care and 
help, finding that yom* solid and christian demeanour hath 
gotten no small interest in the hearts of our superiors, those 
noble and worthy senators with whom you have had to do 
on om- behalf, as it hath constantly appeared in your ad- 
dresses made unto them, which we have by good and com- 
fortable proof found, having plentiful experience thereof. 
* Hutchinson, vol. i. p. 454. 



118 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS, 

" The last year we have laden you with much employ- 
ment, which we were then put upon hy reason of some 
too refractory among ourselves, wherein we appealed unto 
you for your advice, for the more public manifestation of 
it with respect to our superiors. But our intelligence it 
seems fell short in that great loss of the ship, which is con- 
ceived here to be cast away. We have now a new occasion 
given by an old spirit, with respect to the colonies about us, 
who seem to be offended with us because of a sort of people 
called by the name of quakers, who are come amongst us, and 
have raised up divers who seem at present to be of their 
spirit, whereat the colonies about us seem to be ofifended with 
us, because the said people have theii' liberty amongst us, are 
entertained into our houses, or into any of our assemblies. 
And for the present we have found no just cause to charge 
them with the breach of civil peace, only they are constantly 
going forth amongst them about us, and vex and trouble them 
in point of theii- religion and spiritual state, though they 
retm-n wdth many a foul scar in their bodies for the same. 
And the offence om- neighbours take against us, is because 
w^e take not some course against the said people, either to ■ 
expel them from among us, or take such coui'ses against 
them as themselves do, who are in fear lest their religion 
should be corrupted by them. Concerning w^hich displea- 
sm-e that they seem to take, it was expressed to us in a 
solemn letter, written by the commissioners of the united 
colonies at their sitting, as though they would bring us in 
to act according to their scantling, or else take some course 
to do us greater displeasure. A copy of which letter we 
have herewith sent unto you, wherein you may perceive 
how they express themselves. As also w^e have herewith 
sent om- present answer unto them, to give you w^hat light 
we may in this matter. There is one clause in theii' letter 
which plainly implies a tlireat, though covertly expressed 
• — as their manner is — which we gather to be this : that as 
themselves (as we conceive) have been much awed, in point 
of their continued subjection to the state of England, lest, 
in case they should decline, England might prohibit all 
trade with them, both in pomt of exportation and importa- 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 119 

tioii of any commodities, which were a host sufficiently- 
prevalent to subdue New England, as not being able to 
subsist ; even so they seem secretly to thi-eaten us, by 
cutting us off from all commerce and trade with them, and 
thereby to disable us of any comfortable subsistence, because 
that the concourse of shipping, and so of all kind of com- 
modities, is universally conversant amongst themselves ; as 
also knowing that ourselves are not in a capacity to send 
out sliipping of ourselves, which is in great measm-e 
occasioned hy their oppressing us, as yourself well know ; as 
in many other respects, so in this for one, that we cannot 
have an5i;hing from them for the supply of our necessities, 
but, in effect, they make the prices both of om- commodities 
and their own also, because we have not English coin, but 
only that which passeth among these barbarians, and such 
commodities as are raised by the labour of our hands, 
as corn, cattle, tobacco, &c., to make payment in, which 
they will have at then- own rate, or else not deal with us ; 
whereby though they gain extraordinarily by us, yet, for 
the safeguard of their religion, may seem to neglect them- 
selves in that respect ; for what ivill not men do for their 
Godf 

" Sir, this is our earnest and present request unto you 
in this matter, that as you may perceive in our answer to 
the united colonies, that we fly as to our refuge in all civil 
respects to his highness and honoui-able council, as not 
being subject to any others in matters of our civil state, so 
may it please you to have an eye and ear open, in case 
om* adversaries should seek to midermine us in our privi- 
leges granted unto us, and to plead our case in such sort, as 
that we may not he co7np)elled to exercise any civil power over 
men^s consciences, so lotiy as hutnan orders in p)oint of civility 
are not corrupted and violated, which our neighbours about 
us do frequently practise, whereof many of us have large 
experience, and judge it to be no less than a point of 
absolute cruelty. 

"John Sanford, 
" Clerk of the Assembly."* 
* Colony Records. 



120 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

Thus terminated the controversy respecting the perse- 
cution of the quakers, between the commissioners of New 
England and the colony of Rhode Island. It commenced 
near the close of Williams's administration ; the measm-es 
on the part of the colony were sustained by his advice and 
authority, and his liberal and tolerant spirit pervaded all 
these proceedings. He retired from the ofiice of president 
in May, 1658, and it is probable he declined being a candi- 
date for re-election, though, at intervals, for several years, he 
occupied a seat in the upper house of the general assembly. 
Perhaps his motives were the same as those which, at a 
subsequent period, influenced the immortal Washington, 
who did not think it right that the highest office should be 
held for a long period by the same individual. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE KING GRANTS A NEW CHARTER— WILLIAMS APPOINTED AS- 
SISTANT — CHARGES AGAINST RHODE ISLAND REFUTED — CON- 
TROVERSY WITH THE QUAKERS — PHILIP'S WAR — SERVICES OF 
WILLIAMS. 

Although Roger Williams had retired from the post of 
chief magistrate, yet he neglected no opportunity to pro- 
mote the interests of the colony. He was appointed hy his 
fellow-citizens of Providence to all the higher offices, and 
frequent and honourable mention of his name appears in 
the records both of the town and colony. 

In the meantime, the various trials through which 
Rhode Island passed increased her own love of liberty, 
and, by the blessing of Divine Providence, she overcame 
all the machinations of her adversaries, both at home and 
abroad. Her prosperity augmented, and her inhabitants 
multiplied ; for, to the persecuted of all denominations, she 
was an ark of safety. 

John Clarke, who was sent with Roger Williams to 
England in the year 1651, still continued there, to watch 
over the interests of the colony. After the death of the 
protector, and the final subversion of the commonwealth, a 
commission was sent to Dr. Clarke to procure a new charter 
from Charles II. On the 8th of July, 1663, it was granted, 
and conferred full power upon the colony, the king not 
having even reserved to himself the right of revising the 
proceedings. It gave her the choice of eveiy officer, from 
the highest to the lowest — it authorized her to make peace 
and to declare war — and constituted her a sovereignty, 
under the protection of England. This instrument, like the 



122 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

former charter, thus nobly embodies Rhode Island's great 
principle : — 

" No person within the said colony, at any time hereafter, 
shall be anywise molested, punished, disquieted, or called 
in question, for any differences in opinion in matters of 
religion, who do not actually distm-b the peace of our said 
colony; but that all and every person and persons may, 
from time to time, and at all times hereafter, freely and fully 
have and enjoy his own and their judgments and consciences, 
in matters of religious concernments, throughout the tract of 
land hereafter mentioned, they behaving themselves peace- 
ably and quietly, and not using this liberty to licentiousness 
and profaneness, nor to the civil injury or outward distui'b- 
anee of others."* 

This charter, from such a source, cannot fail to awaken 
both admii-ation and astonishment. One so favom-able to 
civil and religious liberty was never before granted by an 
English monarch ; and it may be doubted whether, up to 
the present period, fi-eedom so unlimited has even yet been 
bestowed by England upon any of her colonies. 

The new charter was received with enthusiastic joy by 
the colonists. It was brought to New England by Captain 
George Baxter, and presented to the general com-t at 
Newport, November 24th, 1663. On the following day, it 
was read in " a very great meeting and assembly of the 
freemen of the colony." The records say, that " the said 
letters, mth his majesty's royal stamp and the broad seal, 
with much beseeming gravity, were held up on high, and 
presented to the perfect view of the people." Thanks were 
voted to the king, to the earl of Clarendon, and to Dr. 
Clarke, their " trusty and well-beloved friend," together 
with a resolution to pay all his expenses, and to present 
him with a hundi'ed pounds. Thanks were also voted to 
Captain Baxter, mth a present of thirty pounds, besides his 
expenses from Boston. 

By the provisions of the charter, the king appointed the 
first governor and assistants, who were to continue in office 
till the first Wednesday of ISIay next ensuing. Roger 
* This charter is given at length in Appendix II. 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 123 

Williams was created one of the assistants ; and at tlie first 
meeting of the assembly, under the new government, he 
was appointed to transcribe the charter into the records of 
the colon)'. In May, 1664, at the first general election held 
by the people, Williams was chosen an assistant ; and at 
this session, in connexion with Dr. Clarke, was appointed 
to review the laws. He was also appointed one of the 
commissioners to fix the eastern boundary of the colony. 

Such were the auspicious circumstances in which this 
charter went into operation ; and it continued to be the 
fundamental law of Rhode Island for nearly one hundred 
and eighty years. The commmiity prospered under its 
rule ; and when it was supplanted m 1843, by the present 
constitution, it was the oldest charter of civil government 
in existence. 

•* There into life an infant empire springs ! 
There falls the iron from the soul ; 
There liberty's young accents roll 
Up to the King of kings ! " 

Two charges have been brought against Rhode Island, 
which claim here a passing remark. The first is made by 
an English writer,* who states, that at the meeting of the 
general assembly, in March, 1664, a law was passed, con- 
taining the following passage : — " That all men ])^'ofessmg 
Christianity, of competent estates, and of civil conversation, 
who acknowledge and are obedient to the civil magistrates, 
though of difierent judgments in religious affair's, Roman 
catholics only excej^ted, shall be admitted freemen, or may 
choose or be chosen colonial officers." 

Such an act would have been an anomaly in the legis- 
lation of Rhode Island, and a serious reflection upon the 
character of Roger Williams and the colony. It is certain 
that no law containing the clauses above-written in italics 
was passed in 1664 ; nor can such a law be found in the 
records of the state, from its first settlement to the present 
time. The Hon. Samuel Eddy, who was secretary of state 
in Rhode Island from 1797 to 1819, and who examined the 

* Chalmers's Political Annals, book i. c. 11, pp. 276—279. 



124 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

records with, the utmost care, and with a particular view to 
tliis law, declares that he could find " nothing that has any 
reference to it, nor anything that gives any preference or 
privileges to men of one set of religious opinions over those 
of another."* 

This testimony, while alone suflficient to disprove the 
allegation, is abundantly confirmed by the fact, that the 
very next year — in May, 1665 — the legislature asserted, 
that " liberty to all persons as to the worship of God had 
been a principle maintained in the colony from the 
beginning thereof; and it was much in their hearts to 
preserve the same liberty for ever." 

The commissioners from England, also, who visited 
Rhode Island the same year, reported of its people: — 
" They allow liberty of conscience to all who live civilly ; 
they admit of all religions."! 

Again, in 1680, the legislature declared: — "We leave 
every man to walk as God persuades his heart; all our 
people enjoy freedom of conscience." It is, moreover, utterly 
incredible that they would enact a law at variance with all 
their institutions, and which would have been a violation of 
the charter. It confl.icts with all their pre"vdous and subse- 
quent policy, and especially with the principles of Wilhams, 
who, in his HireHng Ministry, says : — "All these consciences 
(yea, the very conscience of papists, jews, &c., as I have 
proved at large in answer to Mr. Cotton's wasliings), ought 
freely and impartially to be permitted their several respec- 
tive worships, their ministers of worships, and what way 
of maintaining them they please." 

Judge Eddy accomits for the existence of the words in 
italics, found in the copy of the laws printed in 1745, by 
supposing they were inserted without authority by a re- 
vising conmiittee, who might be desirous to please the 
government of England. It may be added, that in this 
veiy year, 1745, great alarai was created in the mother- 
country at the prospect of the re-introduction of popery, in 
connexion with the invasion of the pretender. The words, 

• For a full statement of Mr. Eddy's views, see "Walsh's Appeal, 
pp. 427—435. t Hutch. Coll. p. 413. 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 125 

2)rofessing christicmity, and Roman catholics only excepted, 
are now regarded, by all who have carefully examined the 
subject, as an interpolation. 

The other charge is, that, in 1665, the quakers were out- 
lawed for refusing to bear arms.* This statement has also 
been proved to be as destitute of truth as the former by 
Judge Eddy, in an article contained in the Massachusetts 
Historical Collections, 2nd series, vol. vii. p. 97. From this 
article, it appears that the commissioners of the king 
requii'cd, in his name, " that all householders, inhabiting 
this colony, take the oath of allegiance," the penalty for 
refusal being, a forfeitm^e of the elective franchise. The 
general assembly replied, that it had been the uniform 
practice of the colony,- from respect to the rights of con- 
science, to allow those who objected to an oath to make an 
engagement, on the penalties of perjmy. An engagement 
was accordingly drawn up, in which the individual pro- 
mised to bear allegiance to the king and his successors, and 
" to yield due obedience to the laws established from time 
to time." To the latter part of this engagement the quakers 
objected, because they conceived it would bind them to 
conform to the militia laws. The colony had not power to 
dispense with the king's ordinance ; but the form of the 
engagement vras altered the very next year, to meet their 
scruples ; and the year following, one of theu' number was 
elected deputy-governor. 

It may be proper here to give a brief account of Roger 
Williams's famous controversy with the quakers, which is 
contained in the last of his published writings. It was an 
imhappy dispute, in which all parties displayed more zeal 
than christian charity ; and the result probably tended to 
irritate rather than to con\T.nce. We must, however, 
honour the motives by which Williams was actuated, and 
which he declares to have been a desire to vindicate the 
name of God from the dishonour brought upon it by the 
quakers — to justify the colony for receiving them when 

* See an article signed Francis Brimley, in Mass. Hist. Coll, 
vol. V. p, 216, whose statement is repeated in Holmes's American 
Annals, vol. i. p. 341. 



126 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

banished from the other colonies — and to bear public 
testimony, that, while he was decidedly opposed to any 
measm-es which would impair liberty of conscience, he 
disapproved of the doctrines and practices of that sect. 
Rhode Island, being the refuge of these persons, was 
charged with approving principles and conduct injurious 
to the morals and order of societ;^^ These remarks must 
not be understood as applying in the slightest degree to the 
estimable society of Friends as they exist at the present 
day, for none would repudiate more sincerely than they the 
fanatical extravagances of some of the adherents of George 
Fox, at that period, in New England, 

In the month of July, 1672, Williams took occasion, 
when the distinguished founder of the sect was in Rhode 
Island, to propose that the principles of the quakers should 
be examined in a friendly debate. Such public disputes 
were not uncommon in that age, but they cannot be 
regarded as a test of truth, and have seldom proved 
beneficial in demolishing error. Williams sent fom-teen 
propositions to Fox, at Newport; but, from some cause, they 
were not delivered till thirteen days after the date, and the 
latter left for England without having seen them. 

A discussion, however, was commenced with three of his 
disciples at Newport ; and continued there, and at Provi- 
dence, for fom* days, where it terminated, having produced 
no change of opinion on either side. 

Williams afterwards published an account of this debate, 
which bears the following quaint title : " George Fox digged 
out of his BmTowes ; or, an Offer of Disputation on Fourteen 
Proposals, made this last Summer, 1672 (so-called), unto 
G. Fox, then present on Rhode Island, in New England. By 
R. W." It is a small quarto volume of 327 pages, and 
disjDlays considerable learning and acuteness, but is distin- 
guished by an acerbity of language not found in his other 
writings. This dispute naturally gave umbrage to some of 
that sect for a time ; but there were others who cherished for 
him the highest esteem, among whom was Joseph Jenckes, 
a subsequent governor of Rhode Island, who bestows a 
merited eulogy on Williams as a man and a christian. 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 127 

He had now reached tlie appointed bourne of human life ; 
but his physical and mental powers remained vigorous, and 
circumstances occm-red about tliis time which called forth 
all his energies. Massassoit, the principal sachem of the 
Pokanokets, and the friend of the English, now slept with 
his fathers, and his son, Philip, succeeded him as chief over 
the allied tribes. He was able and ambitious, and endea- 
voured to establish a league among the Indians in New 
England, in order to arrest the progress of the whites, 
or drive them from the land of his fathers. WTiile Philip 
was making preparation for war, in 1671, the governor of 
Plymouth and the commissioners invited him to meet them 
at Tamiton. The haughty chieftain, suspicious of their 
design, refused ; and demanded that they should come to 
him. In tliis posture of aiFairs, Williams, with a Mr. Brown, 
offered to become a hostage in Philip's camp. He then 
acceded to the above request, delivered up about seventy 
guns, and promised futm-e fidelity. This event, through 
the successful agency of Williams, gave the colony four 
years to prepare for the impending conflict. He exerted 
himself, also, to prevent the powerful tribe of the Narra- 
gansetts from joining the league. They at first promised 
neutrality, and renewed their treaty with the colonies ; but 
they afterwards united themselves to Philip, and rushed, 
with theu' fom- thousand warriors, to the final struggle. 

In June, 1675, the chief of the Pokanokets commenced a 
war against Plymouth colony, that soon spread terror and 
devastation to almost every settlement of New England. 
It lasted more than a year, and for a time threatened the 
extermination of her colonies. About six hundred men, 
the flower of her strength, fell in battle or were butchered 
by the savages ; twelve or thirteen towns were utterly 
destroyed ; six hundred dwelling-houses reduced to ashes ; 
and the expense and loss equalled in value half a million 
of dollars. It was the most distressing period the country 
had ever seen, and almost every family lost some relative 
in this calamitous war. 

On this occasion, for the first time, Rhode Island became 
exposed to the hostility of the Indians. Many of the 



128 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

inhabitants of Providence, and of the other towns of the 
colony, removed to the island for safety. Williams, how- 
ever, remained at home, and exerted his wonted energy. 
He accepted a commission as captain in the militia, and 
displayed his patriotic valour by buckling on his armour 
for the defence of his fellow-citizens. He also presented a 
petition to the town of Providence, for leave to convert 
one of the houses into a garrison, and to erect other 
defences " for the safety of the women and children." 

It is said, that when the Indians appeared on the heights 
north of the town, Williams took his staff, and fearlessly 
Avent forth to meet them, hoping, as on former occasions, to 
appease their vengeance. Some of the old warriors ad- 
vanced from the main body to meet him, with whom he 
remonstrated. He admonished them of the power and 
vengeance of the English. " Massachusetts," said he, '' can 
raise thousands of men at this moment, and if you kill 
them, the king of England will supply their places as fast 
as they fall." " Well," answered one of the cliieftains, " let 
them come. We are ready for them. But as for you, 
brother WilKams, you are a good man. You have been 
kind to us many years. Not a hair of yom- head shall be 
touched."* Finding their young warriors could not be 
restrained, he returned to the garrison. The Indians sub- 
sequently entered the town and destroyed by fii'e thirty 
deserted habitations ; but it does not appear that any 
persons were killed. In one of the houses the records were 
deposited, which were preserved by being thi-own into the 
Mooshausick, from whence they were afterwards recovered, 
though much injm-ed. 

This conflict was brought to a close, by the death of 
Philip, in August, 1676. The Pokanokets were nearly 
exterminated, and of the once powerful Narragansetts 
hardly one hundi-ed men remained. In the wars of the 
NeAv England colonists with the Indians, the candid his- 
torian will find much both to regret and condemn ; but it 
is due to the memory of the pilgrims to state, that those 

* Baylie's Hist, of Plymouth, vol. iii. p. 314. Thatcher's Indian 
Biography, vol. i. p. 309. 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 129 

hostilities were first commenced by the savages, and when 
the strug-gle came, it was a contest for life or death. "We 
cannot fail to recognise the hand of an All-wise Providence 
in preserving the colonists during their infant state from 
such a general league of the natives, which, had it been 
formed ,at that period, must have resulted in their utter 
extermination. 

In May, 1677, Roger Williams was again elected a 
member of the upper house of the colonial assembly, but 
he declined the office. He continued, however, to watch 
with parental solicitude over the affairs of the colony, and 
was their counsellor in all emergencies. He was especially' 
sensitive to any departure from those great principles which 
are essential to civil government as well as religious liberty. 
A few factious persons raised objections to the payment of 
the necessary taxes, which induced him to present to his 
fellow-citizens the following paper, entitled Considerations 
touching Rates, many of which may be regarded as valu- 
able civil maxims : — 

" I. Government and order in families, towns, &c., is the 
ordinance of the Most High (llom. xiii.) for the peace and 
good of mankind. 

" II. Six things are written in the hearts of all mankind, 
yea, even in pagans : 1st, That there is a Deity; 2nd, That 
some actions are naught ; 3rd, That the Deity will punish ; 
4th, That there is another life ; 5th, That marriage is 
honourable ; 6th, That mankind cannot keep together 
without some government. 

*' III. There is no Englishman in his majesty's dominions 
or elsewhere, who is not forced to submit to government. 

" IV. There is not a man in the world, except robbers, 
pirates, and rebels, but doth submit to government. 

" V. Even robbers, pii^ates, and rebels themselves cannot 
hold together, but by some law among themselves and 
government. 

"VI. One of these two great laws in the world must 
prevail, — either that of judges and justices of peace in 
courts of peace, or the law of arms, the sword and blood. 
" VII. If it comes fi'om the courts of trials of peace, to 
K 



130 LIFE OF EOGER WILLIAMS. 

the trial of the sword and blood, the conquered is forced to 
seek law and government. 

"VIII. Till matters come to a settled government, no 
man is ordinarily sure of his house, goods, lands, cattle, 
wife, children, or life. 

" IX. Hence is that ancient maxim. It is letter to live 
under a tyrant in peace, than under the sword, or where 
every man is a tyrant. 

" X. His majesty sends governors to Barhadoes, Virginia, 
&c., but to us he shows greater favour in om- charter, to 
choose whom we please. 

" XI. No charters are obtained without great suit, favour, 
or charges. Our fii'st cost a hundi-ed ijounds (though I never 
received it aU) ; oui- second about a thousand ; Connecticut 
about six thousand, &c. 

"XII. No government is maintained without tribute, 
custom, rates, taxes, &c. 

" XIII. Om- charter excels all in New England, or in the 
world, OS to the souls of men. 

" XIV. It pleased God (Rom. xiii.) to command tribute, 
custom, and consequently rates, not only for fear, but for 
conscience sake. 

" XV. Om- rates are the least, by far, of any colony in 
New England. 

" XVI. There is no man that hath a vote in town or 
colony, but he hath a hand in making the rates by himself 
or his dejmties. 

" XVII. In our colony, the general assembly, governor, 
magistrates, deputies, to^vns, town-clerks, raters, constables, 
&c., have done then* duties ; the failing lies upon particular 
persons. 

" XVIII. It is but folly to resist : (one or more, and if 
one, why not more ?) God hath stu-red up the spirit of the 
governor, magistrates, and officers, diiven to it by necessity, 
to be unanimously resolved to see the matter finished ; and 
it is the duty of every man to mamtain, encom^age, and 
strengthen the hand of authority. 

"Roger Williams. 
" Providence, loth Jan. 1681." 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 131 

On all questions of civil polity, the views of Williams 
were enlarged, and decidedly in favour of the rights of the 
people. He frequently states them in such passages as 
the following : — " Kings and magistrates must he con- 
sidered invested with no more power than the people 
betrust them with." " The sovereign power of all civil 
authority is founded in the consent of the people."* Though 
he sympathized with the popular party in the contests of 
that age, and was on terms of fr-iendship with many of its 
distinguished leaders, yet he expressed his disapprobation 
of some of their measm^es. His own colony was a republic, 
established on the broadest foundations of indi\idual free- 
dom ; but he was always a loyal subject of the government 
at home, whether administered by king, parliament, or 
protector. A firm friend to law and order, he sought the 
essential spirit of liberty in whatever form it was en- 
shrined. 

* " Bloudy Tenent," pp. 116, 243. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

ECCLESIASTICAL AFFAIRS OF THE COLONY — "VNaLLIAMS'S RELIGIOUS 
OPINIONS — HIS LABOURS AS A MINISTER — HIS LETTER TO 
GOVERNOR BRADSTREET — HIS DEATH. 

In tracing the remarkable com-se of the subject of our 
narrative, from the period of the establishment of his 
colony, we have confined ourselves to those political and 
social events in which he was the prime actor ; but it must 
not be supposed that he ever merged the character of the 
minister and Indian missionary in that of the legislator. 
We will now advert to ecclesiastical affairs, and to the 
religious opinions and practice of Williams. 

He has left us no account himself of the manner in which 
public worship was maintained at Pro\adence ; but we learn 
from Governor Wintlu'op and others, that, on his first 
arrival, he was accustomed to preach both on the Sabbath 
and on week-days. In pleasant weather the congregation 
are said to have assembled under the shades of the forest, 
and at other times, being few in number, they were ac- 
commodated in a private habitation. There is no evidence 
of any immediate ecclesiastical organization, but some of 
the inhabitants had been members of the church at Salem, 
and probably still regarded Williams as their pastor. As 
there was a diversity of religious opinions among the 
people, he may have judged it most conducive to the har- 
mony of his little colony, at first to coUect the whole into 
one assembly, until the number should have increased, so as 
to enable them to form separate societies in accordance 
with their oavii views. 

In the com-se of two or three years, the settlement re- 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 133 

ceived many accessions from the neighbouring colonies and 
from England, and some of these persons were inclined to 
the opinions of the baptists. Williams embraced the same 
views, but it was not easy for him to submit himself to the 
ordinance as usually administered, there being no baptist 
minister in New England. Under these circumstances, 
Ezekiel Hollimau, a pious and gifted individual, who after- 
wards became a minister, was selected to baptize Roger 
Williams, and the latter then administered the ordinance 
to Mr. Holliman and ten others. Few persons in the present 
day, not wedded to sacerdotalism, will, under the peculiar 
circumstances, condemn this proceeding of Williams and 
his friends. They placed the essential value of gospel ordi- 
nances not in the official character of the administrator, 
but in the spirit of the recipient. 

At that time prophecy was a favourite study with many 
good men, a predilection for which has always characterised 
periods of religious or political excitement. The inquiries 
of Williams appear to have taken the same direction ; and 
he fell into the too common error of deriving the principles 
of the chi'istian chm-ch from the prophetic wi'itings. Thus 
imaginative interpretations usurped the place of the rules 
and precedents of the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles. 
He adopted the opinion, that the entii-e chui'ch had so far 
departed from its primitive constitution, that the triumph 
of Christ's kingdom could not be expected mitil a new 
dispensation, resembling the apostolic, should arise. As, 
however, little dependence can be placed on the prejudiced 
statements of his opponents, our readers must judge of his 
views from liis own expositions, in the following passages, 
from his writings. In his " Bloudy Tenent" he says : *' Thou- 
sands and ten thousands, yea, the whole generation of the 
righteous, who (since the falling away fi-om the first primi- 
tive state or worship) have and do err fundamentally 
concerning the true matter, constitution, gathering, and 
governing of the church ; and yet far be it from any pious 
breast to imagine that they are not saved, and that their 
souls are not bound up in the bundle of eternal life."* In 
* Bloudy Tenent of Persecution, p. 20. 



134 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

his " Hireling Ministry " lie observes : " In the poor small 
span of my life I desu^ed to have been a diligent and con- 
stant observer, and have been myself in many ways 
engaged, in city, in country, in coui't, in schools, in imi- 
versities, in chui'ches, in Old and New England, and yet 
cannot, in the holy presence of God, bring in the result of 
a satisfying discovery, that either the begetting ministry of 
the apostles to the nations, or the feeding and nourishing 
ministry of pastors and teachers, according to the first 
institutions of the Lord Jesus, are yet restored and ex- 
tant."* In his opinion, the only ministry which existed 
was that of prophets — i.e., teachers, whose duty it was to 
explain religious truths and bear witness against error. In 
a passage of the same work he says : " The apostolical 
commission and ministry is long since interrupted and dis- 
continued ; yet ever since the beast antichi'ist arose, the 
Lord hath stirred up the ministry of prophecy, who must 
continue their witness and prophecy imtil their witness be 
finished, and slaughters, probably near approaching, be 
accomplished." 

These peculiar opinions, however, could not extinguish 
his zeal for the conversion of men ; and in this, as well as 
in other instances, we may observe, that if he was sometimes 
led astray by the speculations of his head, he was restored 
to the right path by the warmth of his heart. We have 
no evidence that, after this period, he ever became ofiicially 
connected with any chui'ch. If, indeed, there had been no 
other obstacle, his engrossing occupations in the general 
affairs of the colony would have rendered it unsuitable. 
From his first settlement in Providence, however, to the 
close of his life, he continued frequently to preach the 
gospel to the ignorant and destitute around him. He made 
laudable attempts to instruct the Narragansett Indians ; 
and, when he was more than thi'ee-score years and ten, 
continued his monthly visits to preach to them and the 
English in that district. A tribe of these Indians, called 
the Nianticks, were objects of his peculiar care, and they 
would listen to him when they would hear no one else. 
* Hireling Ministry none of Christ's, p. 4. 



LIFE OF KOGER WILLIAMS. 135 

They were so far influenced by liis ministerial labours that 
they took no part in Pliilip's war. A remnant of this once 
powerful people still continue to reside in their original 
place of abode, in the south-west part of Rhode Island, 
on lands settled upon them by the state ; where, civilized 
and christianized, they remain a living monument of the 
zeal and benevolence of Roger Williams. 

When very near the close of his life, he occupied his 
leisui-e in preparing the discourses which he had delivered 
dui'ing his missionary efforts, as mil appear from the fol- 
lowing letter. It derives peculiar interest from being the 
last production of his pen which has been preserved : — 

" to my much-honoured, kind friend, the governor 
Bradstreet, at Boston. 

"Providence, May eth, 1682. 

" Sir, — ^This enclosed tells you that, being old, and weak, 
and bruised (with ruptui'e and coHc), and lameness on both 
my feet, I am directed, by the Father of oui* spirits, to 
desii"e to attend his infinite Majesty with a poor mite 
(which makes but two farthings). By my fire-side I have 
recollected the discom'ses which (by many tedious jom-neys), 
I have had with the scattered English at Narragansett, 
before the war and since. I have reduced them unto those 
twenty-two heads (enclosed), which is near thirty sheets of 
my wi-iting. I would send them to the Narragansetts and 
others : there is no controversy in them ; only an endeavour 
of a particular match of each poor sinner to his Maker. 
For [the expense of] printing, I am forced to write to my 
friends at Massachusetts, Connecticut, Plymouth, and oui* 
own colony, that he that hath a shilling and a heart to 
countenance such a soul work may trust the great Pay- 
master (who is beforehand with us already) for an hun- 
dredth for one in this life 

" Sir, I shall humbly wait for your advice where it may be 
best printed — at Boston or Cambridge — and for how much, 
the printer finding paper. We have tidings here of Shafts- 
bury's and Howard's beheading — and, contrarily, their 



136 • LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

release ; London manifestations of joy; and the king's 
calling a parliament. But all these are but sublunaries, 
temporaries, and trivials. Eternity, O eternity ! is our 
business ; to which end I am most unworthy to be 
" Your willing and faithful servant, 

"Roger Williams. 
" My humble respects to Mrs. Bradstreet, and other 
honoured friends." 

The preceding letter affords additional proof of the 
writer's disinterested benevolence and self-denying spirit. 
With ample opportunities of enriching himself — to use 
the words of his son — " he gave away his lands and other 
estate to them that he thought were most in want, until he 
gave away all."* His property, his time, and his talents, 
were devoted to the promotion of the temporal and spiritual 
welfare of mankind, and in conducting to a glorious issue 
the struggle to unloose " the bonds of the captive daughter 
of Zion." 

The last public act of Williams was to sign a document, 
which bears date January 16, 1683, settling a dispute rela- 
tive to the boundaries between the Providence lands and 
those of an adjacent township. 

HaAdng now accompanied this great man through all the 
events of his remarkable career — from his youth until the 
last year of his life — we should rejoice to go with him, step 
by step, through the brief remainder of his pilgrimage — 
to listen to the accumulated wisdom of years — to hear his 
admonitions to his children, and to his fellow-citizens — his 
estimate of the importance of the great principles for which 
he had contended, in the near ^dew of the final judgment — 
and of liis triumphant faith, as he stood upon the brink of 
the river of death ; — but on these points history is silent. 
We are furnished only with a brief record of his death, 
related in a manner which would lead us to suppose he was 
spared the sufferings of lengthened illness, and called rather 
suddenly from his long service to his eternal reward. On 

* Letter of Daniel "Williams to the town of Providence, dated 
August 24, 1710. 



► 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 137 

the 10th of the following May, Mr. John Thornton, of 
Providence, wrote to the Rev. Samuel Hubbard, of 
Boston : — ■" The Lord hath arrested by death our ancient 
and approved friend, Mr. Roger Williams, with divers 
others here." " He was buried," says Callender, " with all 
the solemnity the colony was able to show." His remains 
Avere interred in a spot which he himself had selected, on 
his own land, a short distance from the place where, forty- 
seven years before, he first set his foot in the wilderness. 
He had nearly attained foiu* score, being in the seventy- 
eighth year of his age. His excellent wife survived him, 
and, as far as can be ascertained, the whole of his family, 
consisting of six children. His lineal descendants are 
numerous, and may justly rejoice in the diffusion alike of 
the fame and of the principles of their ancestor. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

GENERAL ESTIMATE OF HIS CHARACTER — ■ SPREAD OF HIS GREAT 
PRINCIPLE— CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 

Having, in the preceding pages, made Williams, to a 
great extent, his own biographer, an elaborate portraiture 
here is unnecessary. The reader must have observed in his 
character that harmony between the mental and moral 
qualities which is essential to true greatness, and to the 
influence necessary for a reformer ; smce the virtues of the 
man will predispose to the favourable reception of his new 
opinions. The powers of his mind were strong and original ; 
and what he accomplished in the sphere he occupied, suffi- 
ciently indicates what he might have done on a larger 
theatre. His writings manifest a lively imagination and 
\dgorous reasoning powers ; and though his style is dis- 
figm-ed by the defects common to the period, it occasionally 
rises into beauty and eloquence. 

His moral qualities were of the highest order. Inflexible 
integrity, undaunted courage, and promj)t decision, marked 
all his conduct. In his pecuniaiy transactions, his dis- 
interestedness was carried to an extreme, since he may be 
said to have given to his fellow-citizens valuable tracts of 
land, which strictly belonged to himself and his family. 
Every man, of whatever clime, or colour, or condition, he 
regarded as a brother. In all the relations of domestic and 
social life, his conduct was most exemplary. 

Over liis whole com-se his piety shed a hallowed lustre. 
In liim it was a permanent, li\ing principle, as his publica- 
tions and letters abundantly prove. In this testimony his 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 139 

friends and his opponents unite. Even the prejudiced 
Cotton Mather confesses, that " in many things he acquitted 
himself so laudably, that many judicious persons judged 
him to have had the root of the matter in him." Hubbard, 
who was a contemporary, says, " Mr. Williams was a godly 
and zealous preacher." Callender, one of the best authorities 
on this subject, observes, " Mr. AYilliams appears, by the 
whole com'se and tenor of his life and conduct here, to 
have been one of the most disinterested men that ever 
lived — a most pious and heavenly-minded soul." His 
forgiving spirit ; his fervent devotion ; his energetic, vigi- 
lant, and untiring efforts in the cause of humanity, demon- 
strate that he was an eminent Chiistian. We may regard 
it as an additional evidence of his consistent piety, that the 
only charge his opponents have brought against him was a 
fondness for new opinions, which they have employed in 
order to discredit his great principle — the supremacy of 
conscience. Now it is of great importance, in estimating 
religious character, to inquii-e whether a man changes his 
prmct^iles, or only his opinions on non-essential points. If 
he is continually sliding off from the basis of faith and 
salvation, even though he at last retm-n to saving truth, 
our confidence in the soundness of his head and heart must 
be shaken. But this was not the case with Williams. 
From the beginning to the end of his course he never 
swerved fi-om the great evangelical doctrines of the gospel, 
defending them by his writings, and illustrating them by 
the appropriate fr-uits of a holy life. 

With respect to changes of opinion, one of two things 
must be admitted ; either that all Christians have received 
the whole of scriptui-al truth already, or that, in attaining 
to it, they must give up some old opinions. Those men of 
peneti-ating understandings, who have been led to renomice 
error and to discover new truths, have rarely avoided 
mingling some chaff with the wheat, of which we have 
many examples at the Reformation. The subject of this 
narrative, like most men of an ardent and speculative 
temperament, sometimes pushed his reasonings so far as to 
lead to false conclusions ; but he was a sincere lover of 



140 LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 

truth, and nothing could prevent him from carrying out 
his earnest convictions. 

That nohle principle, which is the pillar of his fame, 
has now been sufficiently tested. More than two centuries 
have elapsed since his colony was founded. It has passed 
from the protection of England to an independent state, 
forming an integral part of a great republic ; but in all 
changes it has preserved religious freedom unimpaired. In 
Rhode Island, no man has ever been molested on account 
of his religious opinions ; and civil officers, from the 
highest to the lowest, have been chosen without regard to 
denomination. The happy results have been apparent in 
the harmony existing among the different sects, as well as 
in the liberal support given to public worship and to reli- 
gious institutions. In no part of the world is the propor- 
tion of churches to the population greater than in this 
state ; in proof of which we may mention that one of its 
principal towns, Newport, which has less than ten thousand 
inhabitants, contains twenty chm-ches, of various denomi- 
nations. 

English travellers who have spoken favom-ably of the 
example presented in the New AVorld of religion, un- 
supported by the state, have frequently qualified their 
approbation on the ground that the experiment has been 
too short to afford conclusive evidence. Probably many of 
these gentlemen did not know that there was one state, at 
least, to which this objection cannot apply. Two Immlred 
and sixteen years are, sm'ely, long enough to judge of the 
results of any system. Protestantism itself can boast of 
only one centm-y more ! 

But there are cases — and this sm'ely is one of them — in 
which this experimental argument is superfluous. Prac- 
tical systems may be based on principles so manifestly 
consonant with truth and justice, as to produce a certainty 
of their beneficial working anterior to any experience 
whatever. Above all, such systems, if based on the revealed 
ti'uth of God, must of necessity be sped to successful issues 
by the consentaneous agency of his providence. The his- 
torical argument, whether resting on a wider or a nai'rower 



LIFE OF ROGER WILLIAMS. 141 

induction — whether its premises extend over a larger or a 
shorter period of time, is valuable only to those whose faith 
in truth is scanty and powerless, and who demand evidence 
as palpable and ponderable as would be reasonably required 
by beings endowed with perceptive faculties alone. For 
the sake of such, it is fortunate that the United States 
supplies evidence of the efficacy of the voluntary system, 
which would be sufficient to produce conviction, even if 
religion were a mere matter of statistics. 

It has proved to be an expansive system. The leaven, at 
first hidden in one small territory, gradually extended itself 
until Virginia, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and other states, 
where episcopalianism or Congregationalism was established 
by law, were penetrated by its influence. The last link 
which bound religion to the state was burst asunder by 
Massachusetts in 1833, and every part of the Union has 
now adopted that great truth which occasioned the persecu- 
tion and banishment of Roger Williams.* 

Thus his principles have received a wide illustration, and 
his name its noblest memorial. And when the system of 
Rhode Island shall spread over the whole of Chi'istendom, 
as we believe it is destined to do, the founder of that state 
■will be remembered as one of its chief confessors. The 
approach of that period is indicated by the signs of the 
times ; and every Christian should endeavour, by effort and 
prayer, to accelerate its j)rogress. It will be the harbinger 
of that long-expected and glorious era, when antichrist in 
all its forms shall fall, and the triumphs of the church of 
Christ be universal and complete ! 

* A luminous exhibition of the effects of the dissociation of 
religion from state control in the United States, will be found in 
the " Test of Experience," by John Howard Hinton, A.M. 
London : Cockshaw. 1851. 



APPENDIX. 



APPENDIX. 



No. I.— (P. 44.) 

An extract from the following letter has abeady been 
given in the work. The remainder is here added, as pre- 
senting some interesting traits in the character of Williams, 
as well as of the circumstances of the colonies. Major 
Mason was distinguished for his services in the Pequod war. 
He was major-general of the Connecticut forces, deputy- 
governor of that colony, &c. 

" Providence, June 22, 1670. 

" Major Mason, — My honoured, dear, and ancient 
friend, my due respects and earnest desires to God for 
yom^ eternal peace, &c. 

" I crave your leave and patience to present you with 
some few considerations, occasioned by the late trans- 
actions between your colony and om-s. The last year you 
were pleased, in one of your lines to me, to tell me that 
you longed to see my face once more before you died. I 
embraced your love, though I feared my old lame bones, 
and yom-s, had arrested travelling in this world, and there- 
fore I was, and am, ready to lay hold, on all occasions, of 
writing, as I do at present. 

" The occasion, I confess, is sorrowful, because I see your- 
selves, with others, embarked in a resolution to invade and 
despoil yom' poor countrjTnen in a wilderness, and your 
ancient friends of om* temporal and soul liberties. 

" It is sorrowful, also, because mine eye beholds a black 
L 



146 APPENDIX. 

and doleful train of grievous, and, I fear, bloody conse- 
quences at the heel of this business, both to you and us. 
The Lord is righteous in all our afflictions, — that is a maxim ; 
the Lord is gracious to all oppressed, — that is another ; he 
is most gracious to the soul that cries and waits on him ; 
that is silver, tried in the fire seven times. 

" Sir, I am not out of hopes but that, while your aged 
eyes and mine are yet in their orbs, we shall leave our 
friends and countrymen, our children and relations, and 
this land, in peace behind us. To this end, sir, please you, 
with a calm, and steady, and a christian hand, to hold the 
balance, and to weigh these few considerations, in much 
love and due respect presented .... 

" When, the next year after my banishment, the Lord 
drew the bow of the Pequod war against the country, in 
which, su", the Lord made yourself, with others, a blessed 
instrument of peace to all New England, I had my share of 
service to the whole land in that Pequod business, inferior 
to very few that acted .... 

" I marched up with General Stoughton and the English 
forces to the Narragansett sachems, and brought my country- 
men, and the barbarians, sachems and captains, to a mutual 
confidence and complacency, each iu other. 

" Though I was ready to have marched further, yet, upon 
agreement that I should keep at Providence, as an agent 
between the bay and the army, I returned, and was inter- 
preter and intelligencer, constantly receiving and sending 
letters to the governor and council at Boston, &c., in which 
work I judge it no impertinent digression to recite (out of 
the many scores of letters, at times, from Mr. Winthrop), 
this one pious and heavenly prophecy, touching all New 
England, of that gallant man ; viz., ' If the Lord turn away 
his face from our sins, and bless our endeavours and yours, 
at this time, against om- bloody enemy, we and our children 
shall long enjoy peace in this our wilderness condition.' 
And himself and some other of the council motioned, and it 
was debated, whether or no I had not merited, not only to 
be recalled from banishment, but also to be honoured with 
some remark of favour. It is known who hindered, who 



APPENDIX. 147 

never promoted, tlie liberty of other men's consciences. 
These things, and ten times more, I could relate, to show 
that I am not a stranger to the Pequod wars and lands, and 
possibly not far from the merit of a foot of land in either 
country, which I have not. 

" Considering (upon frequent exceptions against Pro- 
vidence men) that we had no authority for civil government, 
I went purposely to England, and upon my report and 
petition the parliament granted us a charter of government 
for these parts, so judged vacant on all hands. And upon 
this, the country about us was more fiiendly, and wrote 
to us, and treated us as an authorized colony ; only the 
difference of our consciences much obstructed. The bounds 
of this our first charter, I (having ocular knowledge of 
persons, places, and transactions) did honestly and con- 
scientiously, as in the holy presence of God, di*aw up from 
Pawcatuck river, which I then believed, and still do, is free 
from all English claims and conquests ; for although there 
were some Pequods on this side the river, who, by reason of 
some sachems' marriages with some on this side, lived in a 
kind of neutrality with both sides, yet, upon the breaking 
out of the war, they relinquished theu" land to the possession 
of theii- enemies, the Narragansetts and Nianticks, and theii- 
land never came into the condition of the lands on the other 
side, which the English, by conquest, challenged ; so that I 
must still affii-m, as in God's holy presence, I tenderly waived 
to touch a foot of land in which I knew the Pequod wars 
were maintained and were properly Pequod, being a gallant 
country ; and from Pawcatuck river hitherward, being but 
a patch of ground, full of troublesome inhabitants, I did, as 
I judged, inoffensively, draw our poor and inconsiderable 
line. 

" It is true, when at Portsmouth, on Rhode Island, some 
of ours, in a general assembly, motioned their planting on 
this side Pawcatuck. I, hearing that some of the Massa- 
chusetts reckoned tliis land theirs, by conquest, dissuaded 
fi'om the motion, until the matter should be amicably de- 
bated and composed ; for though I questioned not our right, 
&c., yet I feared it would be inexpedient and offensive, and 



148 APPENDIX. 

procreative of these heats and fires, to the dishonouring of 
the king's majesty, and the dishonoimng and blaspheming 
of God and of religion in the eyes of the English and bar- 
barians about us. 

" Some time after the Pequod war and our charter from 
the parliament, the government of Massachusetts wrote to 
myself (then chief officer in this colony), of their receiving 
of a patent from the parliament for these vacant lands, as 
an addition to the Massachusetts, &e., and thereupon re- 
questing me to exercise no more authority, &c., for, they 
wrote, their charter was granted some few weeks before 
om^s. I returned, what I believed righteous and weighty, 
to the hands of my true friend, Mr. Winthi'op, the first 
mover of my coming into these parts, and to that answer of 
mine I never received the least reply; only it is certain 
that, at Mr. Gorton's complaint against the Massachusetts, 
the lord high admu-al, j)resident, said openly, in a full 
meeting of the commissioners, that he knew no other charter 
for these parts than what Mr. Williams had obtained, and 
he was sure that charter, which the Massachusetts EngHsh- 
men pretended, had never passed the table. 

" Upon our humble address by our agent, Mr. Clarke, to 
his majesty, and his gracious promise of renewing our former 
charter, j\Ir. Winthi-op, upon some mistake, had entrenched 
upon oiu- line, and not only so, but, as it is said, upon the 
lines of other charters also. Upon Mr. Clarke's com];)laint 
your grant was called in again, and it had never been re- 
turned ; but upon a report that the agents, Mr. Winthrop 
and Mr. Clarke, were agreed, by mediation of fi-iends (and, 
it is true, they came to a solemn agreement, under hands 
and seals), which agreement was never -violated on our 
part. 

" But the king's majesty sending his commissioners 
(among other of his royal purposes) to reconcile the differ- 
ences of, and to settle the bomids between, the colonies, 
yourselves know how the king himself, therefore, hath 
given a decision to this controversy. Accordingly, the 
king's majesty's aforesaid commissioners at Rhode Island 
(where, as a commissioner for this colony, I transacted with 



APPENDIX. 149 

them, as did also commissioners from Plymouth), they com- 
posed a controversy between Pljonouth and us, and settled 
the bounds between us, in which we rest. 

" However you satisfy yourselves with the Pequod con- 
quest ; with the sealing of your charter some few weeks 
before om's ; with the complaints of particular men to your 
colony; yet, upon a due and serious examination of the 
matter, in the sight of God, you will find the business at 
bottom to be, 

" 1. A depraved appetite after the great vanities, dreams, 
and shadows of this vanishing life, great portions of land, 
land in this wilderness, as if men were in as great necessity 
and danger for want of great portions of land, as poor, 
hungry, thii'sty seamen have, after a sick and stormy, a 
long and starving passage. This is one of the gods of New 
England, which the living and most high Eternal will de- 
stroy and famish. 

" 2. An unneighboui^ly and unchristian intrusion upon us, 
as being the weaker, contrary to your laws as well as ours, 
concerning pm-chasing of lands mthout the consent of the 
general com-t. This I told Major Atherton, at his fii'st going 
up to the Narragansett about this business. I refused all 
their proffers of land, and refused to interpret for them to 
the sachems. 

" 3. From these violations and intrusions arise the com- 
plaint of many privateers, not dealing as they would be 
dealt with, according to law of natm-e, — the law of the 
prophets and Chi-ist Jesus, — complaining against others in 
a design, when they themselves are delinquents and wi'ong- 
doers. I could aggravate this many ways with scripture 
rhetoric and similitudes, but I see need of anodynes (as 
physicians speak) and not of irritations. Only this I must 
crave leave to say, that it looks like a prodigy or monster, 
that countrymen among savages in a wilderness — that pro- 
fessors of God, and of one Mediator, and of an eternal life, 
and that this is like a dream — should not be content with 
those vast and large tracts which all the other colonies 
have (like platters and tables full of dainties), but pull 
and snatch away their poor neighbom's' bit or crust ; and a 



150 APPENDIX. 

crust it is, and a dry, hard one, too, because of the natives' 
continued troubles, trials, and vexations. 

" Alas ! sir, in calm midnight thoughts, what are these 
leaves and iBowers, and smoke and shadows, and dreams of 
earthly notliings, about which we poor fools and children, 
as David saith, disquiet oui'selves in vain ? Alas ! what is 
all the scuffling of tliis world for, but, come, will you smoke 
it f What are all the contentions and wars of this world 
about, generally, but for greater dishes and bowls of porridge, 
of which, if we believe God's Spirit in scripture, Esau and 
Jacob were types ? Esau will part with the heavenly birth- 
right for his supping, after his hunting, for god belly ; and 
Jacob will part with his porridge for an eternal inheritance. 
O Lord, give me to make Jacob's and Mary's choice, which 
shall never be taken from me, 

" How much sweeter is the counsel of the Son of God, to 
mind, fii'st, the matters of his kingdom, — to take no care for 
to-morrow, — to pluck out, cut off, and fling away, right 
eyes, hands, and feet, rather than to be cast whole into hell- 
fire ; to consider the ravens and the lilies, whom a heavenly 
Father so clothes and feeds ; and the counsel of liis servant 
Paul, to roll oui' cares, for this life also, upon the most high 
Lord, steward of his people, the eternal God ; to be content 
with food and raiment ; to mind not our own, but every 
man the things of another; yea, and to suffer wrong, 
and part with what we judge is right, yea, oui- lives, and 
(as poor women-martp's have said) as many as there be 
bail's upon our heads, for the name of God and the Son of 
God his sake. This is humanity, yea, this is Christianity. 
The rest is but formality and pictm-e, courteous idolatry, 
and Jewish and Popish blasphemy against the christian re- 
ligion, the Father of spirits, and his Son the Lord Jesus. 
Besides, sir, the matter with us is not about these children's 
toys of land, meadows, cattle, government, &c. But here, 
all over this colony, a great number of weak and distressed 
souls, scattered, are flpng hither from Old and New Eng- 
land, the Most High and Only Wise hath, in his infinite 
wisdom, provided this country and this corner as a shelter 
for the poor and persecuted, according to their several per- 






APPENDIX. 151 

suasions. And tlius that heavenly man, Mr. Haynes, 
governor of Connecticut, though he pronounced the sen- 
tence of my long banishment against me, at Cambridge, 
then Newtown, yet said imto me, in his own house at Hart- 
ford, being then in some difference with the Bay : ' I think, 
Mr. Williams, I must now confess to you, that the most 
wise God hath provided and cut out this part of his world 
for a refuge and receptacle for all sorts of consciences. I am 
now under a cloud, and my brother Hooker, mth the Bay, 
as you have been ; we have removed from them thus far, 
and yet they are not satisfied.' 

" Thus, sir, the king's majesty, though his father's and 
his own conscience favoured lord bishops, which their 
father and grandfather King James — whom I have spoke 
with — sore against his will, also did, yet all the world may 
see, by his majesty's declarations and engagements before 
his return, and his declarations and parliament speeches 
since, and many suitable actings, how the Father of spirits 
hath mightily impressed and touched his royal spirit, 
though the bishops much disturbed him, with deep incli- 
nation of favom' and gentleness to different consciences and 
apprehensions, as to the invisible King and way of his 
worship. Hence he hath vouchsafed his royal promise 
under his hand and broad seal, that no person in this 
colony shall be molested or questioned for the matters of 
his conscience to God, so he be loyal and keep the civil 
peace. Su-, we must part with lands and lives before we 
part with such a jewel. I judge you may yield some land 
and the government of it to us, and we, for peace sake, the 
like to you, as being but subjects to one king, &c., and I 
think the king's majesty would thank us, for many reasons. 
But to part with this jewel, we may as soon do it as the Jews 
with the favour of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes. Yourselves 
pretend liberty of conscience, but, alas ! it is but self, the 
great god self, only to yourselves. The king's majesty 
winks at Barbadoes, where Jews, and all sorts of christian 
and antichristian persuasions are free ; but our grant, some 
few weeks after yom-s sealed, though granted as soon, if 
not before yours, is crowned with the king's extraordinary 



152 APPENDIX. 

favour to this colony, as being a banished one, in which his 
majesty declared himself that he would experiment, whether 
civil government could consist with such liberty of con- 
science. This his majesty's grant was startled at by his 
majesty's high officers of state, who were to view it in 
com-se before the sealing ; but, fearing the lion's roaring, 
they couched, against their wills, in obedience to his 
majesty's pleasm-e. 

*' Some of yom's, as I heard lately, told tales to the arch- 
bishop of Canterbury; viz., that we are a profane people, 
and do not keep the Sabbath, but some do plough, &c. But, 
first, you told him not how we suffer freely all other per- 
suasions, yea, the common prayer, which yourselves will 
not suffer. If you say you will, you confess you must suffer 
more, as we do. 

" 2. You know this is but a colour to your design, for, 
first, you know that all England itself (after the formality 
and superstition of morning and evening prayer) play away 
their Sabbath. 2nd. You know yourselves do not keep the 
Sabbath, that is, the seventh day, &c. 

" 3. You know that famous Calvin, and thousands more, 
held it but ceremonial and figm-ative, from Colossians ii., 
&c., and vanished ; and that the day of worship was alter- 
able at the church's pleasure. Thus, also, all the Romanists 
confess; saying, viz., that there is no express scripture, 
first, for infants' baptisms ; nor, second, for abolishing the 
seventh day, and instituting the eighth day of worship, but 
that it is at the church's pleasure. 

" 4. You know that, generally, all this whole colony ob- 
serve the first day, only here and there one out of con- 
science, another out of covetousness, make no conscience 
of it. 

" 5. You know the greatest part of the world make 
no conscience of a seventh day. The next part of the 
w^orld, Tui'ks, Jews, and Chi'istians, keep tlu-ee different 
days — Friday, Satui'day, Smiday — for their Sabbath and 
day of worship ; and every one maintains his own by the 
longest sword. 

" 6. I have offered, and do, by these presents, to discuss by 



APPENDIX. 153 

disputation, writing or printing, among other points of 
differences, these thi'ee positions : fii'st, that forced worship 
stinks in God's nostrils. 2nd. That it denies Christ Jesus 
yet to be come, and makes the chm-ch yet national, figm-a- 
tive, and ceremonial. 3rd. That in these flames about reli- 
gion, as his majesty, his father, and grandfather have 
yielded, there is no other prudent, christian way of pre- 
ser\ing peace in the world, but by permission of differing 
consciences. Accordingly, I do now offer to dispute these 
points and other points of difference, if you please, at 
Hartford, Boston, and Plymouth. For the manner of the 
dispute and the discussion, if you think fit, one whole day 
each month in summer, at each place, by course, I am 
ready, if the Lord permit, and, as I humbly hope, assist 
me. 

" It is said, that you intend not to invade our spiritual 
or civil liberties, but only (mider the advantage of first 
sealing your charter) to right the privateers that petition 
to you. It is said, also, that if you had but ISIishquomacuck 
and Narragansett lands quietly yielded, you would stop at 
Cowesit, &c. Oh, sii', what do these thoughts preach, but 
that private cabins rule all, whatever become of the ship 
of common safety and religion, which is so much pretended 
in New England ? Sir, I have heard further, and by some 
that say they know, that something deeper than all which 
hath been mentioned lies in the thi-ee colonies' breasts and 
consultations. I judge it not fit to commit such matter to 
the trust of paper, &c., but only beseech the Father of 
spu'its to guide oui' poor bewildered spirits, for his name 
and mercy sake. 

" Whereas our case seems to be the case of Paul appeal- 
ing to Caesar against the jdots of his religious, zealous 
adversaries. I hear you pass not our petitions and ap- 
peals to his majesty, for partly you think the king will not 
own a profane people that do not keep the Sabbath ; partly 
you think the king an incompetent judge, but you will 
force him to law also, to confii-m your first-born Esau, 
though Jacob had him by the heels, and in God's holy time 
must carry the bii'tln-ight and inheritance. I judge your 



154 APPENDIX. 

surmise is a dangerous mistake ; for patents, grants, and 
charters, and such like royal favours, are not laws of 
England and acts of parliament, nor matters of propriety 
and meum and tuum between the king and his subjects, 
which, as the times have been, have been sometimes triable 
in inferior courts ; but such kind of grants have been like 
high offices in England, of high honom-, and ten, yea, 
twenty thousand pounds gain per annum, yet revocable or 
curtable upon pleasure, according to the king's better infor- 
mation or upon his majesty's sight, or misbehaviour, in grate- 
fulness, or designs fraudulently plotted, private and distinct 
from him. 

" Sir, I lament that such designs should be carried on at 
such a time, while we are stript and whipt, and are still 
under (the whole country) the dreadful rods of God, in our 
wheat, hay, corn, cattle, shipping, trading, bodies, and 
lives; when, on the other side of the water, all sorts of 
consciences (yours and ours) are frpng in the bishops' pan 
and furnace ; when the French and Romish Jesuits, the 
firebrands of the world for their god belly sake, are 
kindling at our back, in this country, especially with the 
Mohawks and Mohegans, against us, of which I know and 
have daily information. 

" If any please to say, is there no medicine for this 
malady ? Must the nakedness of New England, like some 
notorious strumpet, be prostituted to the blaspheming eyes 
of all nations ? Must we be put to plead before his majesty, 
and consequently the lord bishops, om' common enemies, &c.? 
I answer, the Father of mercies and God of all consolations 
hath graciously discovered to me, as I believe, a remedy, 
which, if taken, will quiet all minds, yours and om-s ; will 
keep yours and om's in quiet possession and enjoyment of 
their lands, which you all have so dearly bought and pur- 
chased in this barbarous comitry, and so long possessed 
amongst these wild savages ; will preserve you both in the 
liberties and honours of your charters and governments, 
without the least impeachment of yielding one to another ; 
with a strong curb also to those wild barbarians and all the 
barbarians of this country, without troubling of compro- 



APPENDIX. 155 

misers and arbitrators between you ; without any delay, or 
long and chargeable and grievous address to our king's 
majesty, whose gentle and serene soul must needs be 
afflicted to be troubled again with us. If you please to ask 
me what my prescription is, I will not put you off to 
christian moderation, or christian humility, or chi-istian 
prudence, or christian love, or christian self-denial, or 
christian contention or patience. For I design a civil, a 
humane, and political medicine, which, if the God of heaven 
please to bless, you will find it effectual to all the ends 
I have proposed. Only I must crave your pardon, both 
parties of you, if I judge it not fit to discover it at present. 
I know you are both of you hot ; I fear myself, also. If 
both desire, in a loving and calm spirit, to enjoy your rights, 
I promise you, with God's help, to help you to them, in a 
fair, and sweet, and easy way. My receipt will not please 
you all. If it should so please God to frown upon us that 
you should not like it, I can but humbly mourn, and say 
with the prophet, that which must perish must perish. 
And as to myself, in endeavom*ing after your temporal and 
spiritual peace, I humbly deske to say, if I perish I perish. 
It is but a shadow vanished, a bubble broke, a dream finished. 
Eternity will pay for all. 

" Sir, I am youi- old and true friend and servant, 

" R. W." * 
* Mass. Hist. Coll. vol. i. 



156 APPENDIX. 



No. II.— Letter of Sir Henry Vane.~{'P. 105.) 

The reader will have noticed the warm friendship, and 
the coincidence of opinion on religious freedom, existing 
between Roger WilKams and Sir Hemy Vane. It has been 
remarked by a distinguished historian. Sir James Mackin- 
tosh,* that the latter was "the first who laid down, with 
perfect precision, the inviolable rights of conscience, and 
the exemption of religion from all civil authority." Sir 
James had probably never seen Williams's " Bloudy Tenent," 
which was published twelve years before Sir Henry Vane's 
" Healing Question propounded and resolved," «&:c. In the 
last-mentioned work, copies of which are now rare. Sir 
Henry, after having stated that the great design of the 
ho7iest parti/ was " to restore to the whole body their 
natural rights in civil things," makes the following 
striking observations on " true freedom in matters of 
conscience :" — 

" The second branch which remains briefly to be handled, 
is that which also, upon the grounds of natural right, is to 
be laid claim unto ; but distinguishes itself from the former, 
as it respects a more heavenly and excellent object, wherein 
the freedom is to be exercised and enjoyed ; that is to say, 
matters of religion, or that concern the service and worship 
of God. 

" Unto this freedom the nations of the world have right and 
title, by the purchase of Chi-ist's blood, who, by virtue of his 
death and resm-rection, is become the sole Lord and Ruler 
in and over the conscience ; for to this end Christ died, rose, 
and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of 
the living, and that every one might give an account of 

* View of the Heign of James II., p. 163. 



appendix: 157 

himself in all matters of God's worsliip, unto God and 
Christ alone, as their own Master, unto whom they stand 
or fall in judgment, and are not in these things to be op- 
pressed, or brought before the judgment-seat of men. For 
why shouldest thou set at nought thy brother in matters of 
his faith and conscience, and herein intrude into the proper 
ojffice of Christ, since we are all to stand at the judgment- 
seat of Chi'ist, whether governors or governed, and by his 
decision only are capable of being declared, with certainty, 
to be in the right or in the wrong ? 

" By vu'tue, then, of this supreme law, sealed and con- 
firmed in the blood of Christ unto all men (whose souls he 
challenges a propriety in, to bring under his inward rule in 
the service and worsliip of God), it is that all magistrates 
are to fear and forbear intermeddling with, giving rule or 
imposing in those matters. They are to content themselves 
with what is plain in their commission, as ordained of God 
to be liis ministers unto men for good, whilst they approve 
themselves the doers of that which is good in the sight 
of men, and whereof earthly and worldly judicatm^es are 
capable to make a clear and perfect judgment ; in which 
case the magistrate is to be for praise and protection to 
them. In like manner he is to be a minister of terror and 
revenge to those that do evil in matters of outward prac- 
tice, converse, and dealings in the things of this life be- 
tween man and man, for the cause whereof the judicatures 
of men are appointed and set up. But to exceed these 
limits, as it is not safe nor warrantable for the magistrate 
(in that He who is higher than the highest regards, and will 
show himself displeased at it), so neither is it good for the 
people, who hereby are nourished up in a biting, devouring, 
wrathful spiiit one against another, and are found trans- 
gressors of that royal law which forbids us to do that unto 
another, which we would not have them do unto us, were we 
in their condition. 

" This freedom, then, is of high concern to be had and 
enjoyed, as well for the magistrate's sake as for the people's 
common good, and it consists, as hath been said, in the 
magistrate's forbearing to put forth the power of rule and 



158 APPENDIX. 

coercion in things that God hath exempted out of his com- 
mission, so that all care requisite for the people's obtaining 
this may be exercised with great ease, if it be taken in its 
proper season ; and that this restraint be laid upon the su- 
preme power before it be erected, as a fundamental consti- 
tution, among others, upon which the free consent of the 
people is given, to have the persons brought into the exercise 
of supreme authority over them, and on their behalf; and if 
besides, as a further confirmation hereunto, it be acknow- 
ledged the voluntary act of the ruling power, when once 
brought into a capacity of acting legislatively, that herein 
they are bound up, and judge it their duty so to be (both in 
reference to God, the institutor of magistracy, and in 
reference to the w^hole body by whom they are entrusted), 
this great blessing will hereby be so well pro^dded for, that 
we shall have no cause to fear, as it may be ordered. 

" By this means a great part of the outward exercise of 
antichiistian tyi-anny and bondage will be plucked up by the 
very roots, which, till some such course be held in it, will 
be always apt to renew and sprout out afresh, under some 
new form or refined aj)pearances, as by late years' experi- 
ence we have been taught. For, since the fall of the bishops 
and persecuting presbyteries, the same spirit is apt to arise 
in the next sort of clergy that can get the ear of the magis- 
trate, and pretend to the keeping and ruling the conscience 
of the governors. Although this spirit and practice hath all 
along been decried by the faithful adherents to this cause, 
as a most sore oppression and insufferable yoke of bondage, 
most um-ighteously kept up over the consciences of the 
people, and therefore judged by them most needful to be 
taken out of the way." — A Healing Question propounded and 
resolved, upon occasion of the late public and seasonable Call 
to Humiliation, in order to love and union amongst the honest 
party, and with desire to apply balsam to the wound before 
it becomes incurable. By Henry Vane, hnight. Pp. 5 — 8. 
4to. London, 1656. 



APPENDIX. 159 



Charter of Rhode Island.— {V. 122.) 

The following charter is so remarkable a document, and 
contains such enlarged and enlightened principles of civil 
and religious freedom, that it is here inserted entire. No 
pains have been spared to ensure correctness, the author 
having taken a copy from the original, which is in the office 
of the secretary of the state of Rhode Island. 

Charter of Rhode Island, granted by King Charles II. 
on the Sth of July, 1663. 

" Quintadecima pars Patentium Anno E,egni Regis Caroli 
Secundi Quintodecimo. 

" Charles the Second, by the grace of God, King of Eng- 
land, Scotland, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, 
&c., to all to whom these presents shall come, greeting : 
Whereas we have been informed, by the humble petition of 
our trusty and well-beloved subjects, John Clarke, on the 
behalf of Benedict Arnold, William Brenton, William Cod- 
dington, Nicholas Easton, William Boulston, John Porter, 
John Smith, Samuel Gorton, JohnWeekes, Roger Williams, 
Thomas Olney, Gregory Dexter, John Coggeshall, Joseph 
Clarke, Randall Houlden, John Greene, John -Roome, 
Samuel Wildbore, William Field, James Barker, Richard 
Tew, Thomas Harris, and William Dyre, and the rest of the 
purchasers and free inhabitants of our island, called Rhode 
Island, and the rest of the colony of Providence Plantations, 
in the Narragansett Bay, in New England, in America : 
That they, pursuing with peaceable and loyal minds their 
sober, serious, and religious intentions, of godly edifying 
themselves and one another in the holy christian faith and 
worship, as they were persuaded, together with the gaining 
over and conversion of the poor ignorant Indian natives, in 
those parts of America, to the sincere profession and obedi- 
ence of the same faith and worship, did not only, by the 
consent and good encom'agement of our royal progenitors, 
transport themselves out of this kingdom of England into 



160 APPENDIX. 

America ; but also, since their arrival there, after their first 
settlement amongst other of oui' subjects in those parts, for 
the avoiding of discord, and those many evils which were 
likely to ensue upon some of those, om^ subjects, not being 
able to bear, in these remote parts, their different appre- 
hensions in religious concernments : and in pm-suance of the 
aforesaid ends, did once again leave their desirable stations 
and habitations, and, with excessive labom- and travail, 
hazard and charge, did transplant themselves into the midst 
of the Indian natives, who, as we are informed, are the most 
potent princes and people of all that country ; where, by the 
good providence of God (from whom the plantations have 
taken theu- name) upon their labom- and industry, they have 
not only been preserved to admii-ation, but have increased 
and prospered, and are seized and possessed, by pm*chase 
and consent of the said natives, to their full content, of such 
lands, islands, rivers, harbom's, and roads, as are very con- 
venient, both for plantations and also for building of ships, 
supply of pipestaves and other merchandise, which lie very 
commodious, in many respects, for commerce, and to accom- 
modate our southern plantations, and may much advance 
the trade of this our realm, and greatly enlarge the terri- 
tories thereof ; they having, hj near neighbom'hood to, and 
friendly society with, the great body of the Narragansett 
Indians, given them encom-agemcnt, of their own accord, to 
subject themselves, thek people and lands, unto us ; whereby, 
as is hoped, there may in time, by the blessing of God upon 
theii' endeavom^s, be laid a sm-e foundation of happiness to 
all America : 

" And whereas, in their humble address, they have freely 
declared, that it is much on their hearts (if they be per- 
mitted) to hold forth a Kvely experiment, that a most 
floui'isliing civil state may stand, and best be maintained, 
and that among om' English subjects, with a full liberty 
in religious concernments; and that true piety, rightly 
grounded upon gospel principles, will give the best and 
greatest security to sovereignty, and will lay in the hearts 
of men the strongest obligations to true loyalty : 

" Now know ye, that we, being wiiHng to encourage the 



APPENDIX. 161 

liopeful undertaking of our said loyal and loving subjects, 
and to secui^e them in tlie free exercise and enjoyment of all 
their civil and religious rights appertaining to them, as our 
loving subjects ; and to preserve unto them that liberty in 
the true christian faith and worship of God, which they 
have sought, with so much travail, and with peaceable 
minds and loyal subjection to oui* royal progenitors and 
om'selves, to enjoy; and because some of the people and 
inhabitants of the same colony cannot, in their private 
opinions, conform to the public exercise of religion, accord- 
ing to the liturgy, forms, and ceremonies of the chiu-ch of 
England, or take or subscribe the oaths and articles made 
and established in that behalf ; and for that the same, by 
reason of the remote distances of those places, will, as we 
hope, be no breach of the unity and uniformity established 
in this nation ; have, therefore, thought fit, and do hereby 
publish, grant, ordain, and declare, that om^ royal will and 
pleasm-e is : 

"That no person, within the said colony, at any time 
hereafter, shall be anywise molested, punished, disquieted, 
or called in question, for any differences in opinion in 
matters of religion, and do not actually disturb the civil 
peace of om- said colony ; but that all and every person and 
persons may, from time to time, and at all times hereafter, 
freely and fully have and enjoy his and their own judg- 
ments and consciences, in matters of religious concern- 
ments, throughout the tract of land hereafter mentioned, 
they behaving themselves peaceably and quietly, and not 
using this liberty to licentiousness and profaneness, nor to 
the civil injury or outward distm-bance of others ; any law, 
statute, or clause therein contained, or to be contained, 
usage, or custom of tliis realm, to the contrary hereof, in 
anywise notwithstanding. 

" And that they may be in the better capacity to defend 
themselves, in their just rights and liberties, against all 
the enemies of the Christian faith, and others, in all 
respects, we have fm^ther thought fit, and at the humble 
petition of the persons aforesaid, are graciously pleased to 
declare, 

M 



162 APPENDIX. 

" That they shall have and enjoy the benefit of our late 
act of indemnity and free pardon, as the rest of our subjects 
in our other dominions and territories have, and to create 
and make them a body politic or corporate, -with the powers 
and privileges hereinafter mentioned. And, accordingly, 
oui' will and pleasure is, and of om- especial grace, certain 
knowledge, and mere motion, we have ordained, constituted, 
and declared, and, by these presents, for us, our heirs, and 
successors, do ordain, constitute, and declare, that they, the 
said William Brenton, William Coddington, Nicholas Easton, 
Benedict Arnold, William Boulston, John Porter, Samuel 
Gorton, John Smith, Jolin AVeekes, Roger Williams, Thomas 
Olney, Gregory Dexter, John Coggeshall, Joseph Clarke, 
Randall Houlden, John Greene, John Roome, William Dyre, 
Samuel Wildbore, Richard Tew, William Field, Thomas 

Harris, James Barker, Rainsborrow, Williams, and 

John Nickson, and all such others as now are, or hereafter 
shall be, admitted and made free of the company and society 
of om- colony of Providence Plantations, in the Narragansett 
Bay, in New England, shall be, from time to time, and for 
ever hereafter, a body corporate and politic, in fact and name, 
by the name of The Governor and Company of the English 
Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, in Neio 
England, in America ; and that by the same name they and 
their successors shall and may have perpetual succession, 
and shall and may be persons able and capable in the law 
to sue and be sued, to plead and be impleaded, to answer 
and be answered mito, to defend and to be defended, in 
all and singular suits, causes, quarrels, matters, actions, and 
things, of what kind or nature soever ; and also to have, 
take, possess, acquire, and pui'chase lands, tenements, or 
hereditaments, or any goods or chattels, and the same to 
lease, grant, demise, aliene, bargain, sell, and dispose of, at 
their own will and pleasm-e, as other our liege people of 
this om' realm of England, or any corporation or body politic 
■within the same, may lawfully do. 

" And fui'ther, that they, the said governor and company, 
and their successors, shall and may, for ever hereafter, have 
a common seal, to serve and use for all matters, causes, 



APPENDIX. 163 

tilings, and affairs whatsoever, of them and theii" successors : 
and the same seal to alter, change, break, and make new, 
from time to time, at their will and pleasure, as they shall 
think fit. 

"And further, we will and ordain, and, by these pre- 
sents, for us, our heirs and successors, do declare and 
appoint, that, for the better ordering and managing of the 
affairs and business of the said company and their suc- 
cessors, there shall be one governor, one deputy-governor, 
and ten assistants, to be from time to time constituted, 
elected, and chosen, out of the freemen of the said com- 
pany, for the time being, in such manner and form as is 
hereafter in these presents expressed; which said ofl^cers 
shall apply themselves to take care for the best disposing 
and ordering of the general business and affairs of and 
concerning the lands and hereditaments hereinafter men- 
tioned to be granted, and the plantation thereof, and the 
government of the people there. 

"And, for the better execution of om' royal pleasm-e 
herein, we do, for us, our heirs and successors, assign, name, 
constitute, and appoint the aforesaid Benedict Arnold to be 
the first and present governor of the said company, and the 
said William Brenton to be the deputy-governor ; and the 
said William Boulston, John Porter, Roger Williams, Thomas 
Olney, John Smith, John Greene, John Coggeshall, James 
Barker, William Field, and Joseph Clarke, to be the ten 
present assistants of the said company, to continue in the 
said several offices respectively, until the first Wednesday 
which shall be in the month of May now next coming. 

" And fm-ther, we will, and, by these presents, for us, our 
heirs and successors, do ordain and grant, that the governor 
of the said company, for the time being, or, in his absence, 
by occasion of sickness or otherwise, by his leave and per- 
mission, the deputy-governor, for the time being, shall and 
may, from time to time, upon all occasions, give orders for 
the assembling of the said company, and calling them 
together to consult and advise of the business and affairs 
of the said company ; and that for ever hereafter, twice in 
every year, that is to say, on every first Wednesday in the 



164 APPENDIX. 

montli of May, and on every last AVednesday in October, 
or oftener, in case it shall be requisite, the assistants, and 
such of the freemen of the said company, not exceeding 
six persons for Newport, four persons for each of the 
respective towns of Providence, Portsmouth, and Warwick, 
and two persons for each other place, town, or city, who 
shall be, from time to time, theremito elected or deputed, 
by the major part of the freemen of the respective towns 
or places, for which they shall be so elected or deputed, 
shall have a general meeting or assembly, then and there 
to consult, advise, and determine, in and about the affairs 
and business of the said company and plantations. 

" And further, we do, of our especial grace, certain 
knowledge, and mere motion, give and grant unto the said 
governor and company of the English colony of Rhode 
Island and Providence Plantations, in New England, in 
America, and their successors, that the governor, or, in his 
absence, or by his permission, the deputy-governor of the 
said company, for the time being, the assistants, and such of 
the freemen of the said company, as shall be so as aforesaid 
elected or deputed, or so many of them as shall be present 
at such meeting or assembly, as aforesaid, shall be called 
the general assembly : and that they, or the greatest part 
of them then present (whereof the governor, or deputy- 
governor, and six of the assistants, at least to be seven), 
shall have, and have hereby given and granted unto them, 
full power and authority, from 'time to time, and at all 
times hereafter, to appoint, alter, and change such days, 
times, and places of meeting and general assembly, as they 
shall think fit; and to choose, nominate, and appoint such and 
so many other persons as they shall think fit, and shall be 
willing to accept the same, to be free of the said company 
and body politic, and them into the same to admit ; and to 
elect and constitute such ofiices and officers, and to grant 
such needful commissions as they shall think fit and re- 
quisite, for the ordering, managing, and despatcliing of the 
affairs of the said governor and company, and their suc- 
cessors ; and, from time to time, to make, ordain, constitute, 
or repeal, such laws, statutes, orders and ordinances, forms 



APPENDIX. 165 

and ceremonies of government and magistracy, as to them 
shall seem meet, for the good and welfare of the said com- 
pany, and for the government and ordering of the lands 
and hereditaments hereinafter mentioned to be granted, 
and of the people that do, or at any time hereafter shall, 
inhabit or be witliin the same ; so as snch laws, ordinances, 
and constitutions, so made, be not contrary and repugnant 
unto, but (as near as may be) agreeable to the laws of this 
our realm of England, considering the nature and constitu- 
tion of the place and people there ; and also to appoint, order, 
and direct, erect, and settle, such places and courts of jm-is- 
diction, for the hearing and determining of all actions, cases, 
matters, and things, happening within the said colony and 
plantation, and which shall be in dispute and depending 
there, as they shall think fit ; and also to distinguish and set 
forth the several names and titles, powers, and limits of 
each court, office, and officer, superior and inferior ; and also 
to contrive and appoint such forms of oaths and attestations, 
not repugnant, but (as near as may be) agreeable, as afore- 
said, to the laws and statutes of this our realm, as are con- 
venient and requisite, with respect to the due administration 
of justice, and due execution and discharge of all offices and 
places of trust, by the persons that shall be therein con- 
cerned ; and also to regulate and order the way and manner 
of all elections to offices and places of trust, and to prescribe, 
limit, and distinguish the numbers and bounds of all places, 
towns, or cities, within the limits and bounds hereinafter 
mentioned, and not herein particularly named, that have, or 
shall have, the power of electing and sending of freemen to 
the said general assembly ; and, also, to order, direct, and 
authorize, the imposing of lawful and reasonable fines, 
mulcts, imprisonment, and executing other punishments, 
pecuniary and corporal, upon offenders and delinquents, 
according to the course of other corporations, within this 
our kingdom of England; and again, to alter, revoke, 
annul, or pardon, under their common seal, or otherwise, 
such fines, mulcts, imprisonments, sentences, judgments, 
and condemnations, as shall be thought fit ; and to direct, 
rule, order, and dispose, of all other matters and things, 



166 APPENDIX. 

and particularly that wliich relates to the making of pui'- 
chases of the native Indians, as to them shall seem meet ; 
wherehy our said people and inhabitants in the said planta- 
tions may be so religiously, peaceably, and civilly governed, 
as that, by their good life and orderly conversation, they 
may win and invite the native Indians of the country to 
the knowledge and obedience of the only true God and 
Saviour of mankind ; willing, commanding, and requiting, 
and by these presents, for us, our heii's and successors, 
ordaining and appomting, that all such laws, statutes, 
orders and ordinances, instructions, impositions, and direc- 
tions, as shall be so made by the governor, deputy-governor, 
assistants, and freemen, or such number of them as afore- 
said, and published in writing, under their common seal, 
shall be carefully and duly observed, kept, performed, and 
put in execution, according to the true intent and meaning 
of the same. And these om' letters patent, or the duplicate 
or exemplification thereof, shall be, to all and every such 
officers, superior or inferior, from time to time, for the 
putting of the same orders, laws, statutes, ordinances, in- 
structions, and directions, in due execution, against us, our 
heirs and successors, a sufficient warrant and discharge." 

[Here follow two clauses relating to the appointment 
and functions of the governor and deputy-governor.] 

" Nevertheless, our will and pleasm-e is, and we do hereby 
declare to the rest of om- colonies in New England, that 
it shall not be lawful for this om* colony of Rhode Island 
and Providence Plantations, in America, in New England, 
to invade the natives inhabiting within the bounds and 
limits of their said colonies, without the knowledge and 
consent of the said other colonies. And it is hereby de- 
clared, that it shall not be lawful to or for the rest of the 
colonies to invade or molest the native Indians, or any 
other inhabitants, inhabitmg within the bounds and limits 
hereafter mentioned (they ha^dng subjected themselves 
unto us, and being by us taken into our special protection), 
without the knowledge and consent of the governor and 
company of om- colony of Rhode Island and Providence 
Plantations. 



APPENDIX. 167 

" Also, our will and pleasure is, and we do hereby declare 
unto all Christian kings, princes, and states, that, if any 
person, who shall hereafter be of the said company or 
Plantation, or any other, by appointment of the said 
governor and company, for the time being, shall, at any 
time or times hereafter, rob or spoil, by sea or land, or do 
any hurt, or milawful hostility, to any of the subjects of us, 
our heirs or successors, or to any of the subjects of any 
prince or state, being then in league with us, our heirs 
or successors, upon complaint of such injury done to any 
such prince or state, or their subjects, we, our heirs and 
successors, will make open proclamation, within any parts 
of our realm of England, fit for that purpose, that the 
person or persons committing any such robbery or spoil, 
shall, within the time limited by such proclamation, make 
full restitution or satisfaction of all such injmies done or 
committed, so as the said prince, or others, so complaining, 
may be fully satisfied and contented ; and if the said 
person or persons, who shall commit any such robbery or 
spoil, shall not make satisfaction accordingly, within such 
time so to be limited, that then we, our heirs and successors, 
will put such person or persons out of oiu" allegiance and 
protection ; and that then it shall and may be lawful and 
free for all princes or others to prosecute with hostility 
such ofienders, and every of them, their and every of 
their procurers, aiders, abettors, and counsellors, in that 
behalf. 

" Provided also, and our express will and pleasure is, 
and we do, by these presents, for us, our heirs and suc- 
cessors, ordain and appoint, that these presents shall not, in 
any manner, hinder any of our loving subjects whatsoever 
from using and exercising the trade of fishing upon the 
coast of New England, in America; but that they, and 
every or any of them, shall have full and free power and 
liberty to continue and use the trade of fisliing upon the 
said coast ; in any of the seas thereunto adjoining, or any 
arms of the seas, or salt water rivers and creeks, where they 
have been accustomed to fish ; and to build and set upon 
the waste land, belonging to the said colony and planta- 



168 APPENDIX. 

tions, such wharves, stages, and work-houses, as shall be 
necessary for the salting, drying, and keeping of their fish, 
to be taken or gotten upon that coast. 

" And further, for the encoui'agement of the inhabitants 
of our said colony of Providence Plantations to set upon 
the business of taking whales, it shall be lawful for them, 
or any of them, having struck a whale, dubertus, or other 
great fish, it or them to pursue unto any part of that coast, 
and into any bay, river, cove, creek, or shore, belonging 
thereto, and it or them upon the said coast, or in the said 
bay, river, cove, creek, or shore, belonging thereto, to kill 
and order for the best advantage, without molestation, they 
making no wilful waste or spoil ; anything in these presents 
contained, or any other matter or thing, to the contrary 
notwithstanding. 

"And fui'ther, also, we are graciously pleased, and do 
hereby declare, that if any of the inhabitants of our said 
colony do set upon the planting of vineyards (the soil and 
climate both seeming naturally to concur to the production 
of "wines), or be industrious in the discovery of fishing 
banks, in or about the said colony, we will, from time 
to time, give and allow all due and fitting encom^agement 
therein, as to others in cases of a like natm-e. 

" And further, of our more ample grace, certain know- 
ledge, and mere motion, we have given and granted, and 
by these presents, for us, om* heii's and successors, do give 
and grant unto the said governor and company of the 
English colony of Rhode Island and Providence Planta- 
tions, in the Narragansett Bay, in New England, in Ame- 
rica, and to every inhabitant there, and to every person 
and persons trading thither, and to every such person or 
persons as are or shall be free of the said colony, full power 
and authority, from time to time, and at all times hereafter, 
to take, ship, transport, and carry away, out of any of our 
realms and dominions, for and towards the plantation and 
defence of the said colony, such and so many of our loving 
subjects and strangers, as shall or mil, willingly, accompany 
them in and to then- said colony and plantations, except such 
person or persons as are or shall be therein restrained by 



APPENDIX. 169 

US, our heirs and successors, or any law or statute of this 
realm ; and also to ship and transport all and all manner of 
goods, chattels, merchandise, and other thing-s whatsoever, 
that are or shall be useful, or necessary for the said planta- 
tions, and defence thereof, and usually transported, and not 
prohibited by any law or statute of this om- realm ; yielding- 
and paying unto us, our heirs and successors, such the duties, 
customs, and subsidies, as are or ought to be paid or payable 
for the same. 

" And further, our will and pleasure is, and we do, for us, 
our heirs and successors, ordain, declare, and grant, unto 
the said governor and company, and their successors, that 
all and every the subjects of us, om- heirs and successors, 
wliich are already planted and settled within our said 
colony of Providence Plantations, or which shall hereafter 
go to inhabit within the said colony, and all and every of 
their children which have been born there, or which shall 
happen hereafter to be born there, or on the sea, going 
thither, or returning from thence, shall have and enjoy all 
liberties and immunities of free and natm-al subjects, within 
any of the dominions of us, om^ heirs and successors, to all 
intents, constructions, and pui-poses whatsoever, as if they 
and every of them were born within the realm of England. 

" And fm^ther, know ye, that we, of om- more abundant 
grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion, have given, 
granted and confirmed, and, by these presents, for us, our 
heirs and successors, do give, grant, and confirm unto the 
said governor and company, and their successors, all that 
part of our dominions, in New England, in America, con- 
taining the Nahantick and JSTanhyganset, alias Narragansett 
Bay, and countries and parts adjacent, bounded on the west, 
or westerly, to the middle or channel of a river there, com- 
monly called and known by the name of Pawcatuck, alias 
Pawcawtuck, river; and so, along the said river, as the 
greater or middle stream thereof reaches, or lies up, into 
the north country, northward mito the head thereof, and 
from thence, by a straight line di'aT\Ti due north, until it meet 
with the south line of the Massachusetts colony ; and on the 
north or northerly, by the aforesaid south or southerly, line 



170 APPENDIX. 

of the Massachusetts colony or plantation, and extending 
towards the east or eastwardly, three English miles, to the 
east and north-east of the most eastern and north-eastern 
parts of the aforesaid Narragansett Bay, as the said bay lieth 
or extendeth itself from the ocean, on the south or south- 
wardly, unto the mouth of the river which runneth towards 
the town of Providence ; and from thence, along the east- 
wardly side or bank of the said river (higher called by the 
name of Seacunck river), up to the falls called Patuckett 
Falls, being the most westwardly line of Plymouth colony ; 
and so, fi'om the said falls, in a straight line, due north, 
until it meet with the aforesaid line of the Massachusetts 
colony, and bounded on the south by the ocean, and in par- 
ticular the lands belonging to the towns of Providence, 
Pawtuxet, Warwick, Misquammacock, alias Pawcatuck, 
and the rest upon the main land, in the tract aforesaid, 
together with Rhode Island, Block Island, and all the rest 
of the islands and banks in Narragansett Bay, and border- 
ing upon the coast of the tract aforesaid (Fisher's Island 
only excepted), together with all firm lands, soils, grounds, 
havens, ports, rivers, waters, fishings, mines royal, and all 
other mines, minerals, precious stones, quarries, woods, 
wood-grounds, rocks, slates, and all and singular other 
commodities, jm-isdictions, royalties, privileges, franchises, 
pre-eminences, and hereditaments whatsoever, mthin the 
said tract, bounds, lands, and islands aforesaid, to them or 
any of them belonging, or in anywise appertaining : to 
HAVE AND TO HOLD the Same, unto the said governor and 
company, and their successors for ever, upon trust, for the 
use and benefit of themselves and their associates, freemen 
of the said colony, theii- heu-s and assigns ; to be holden of 
us, om- heii's and successors, as of the manor of East 
Greenwich, in oui' county of Kent, in free and common 
soccage, and not in capitc, nor by knight's service ; yielding 
and paying therefor, to us, om- heirs and successors, only 
the fifth part of all the ore of gold and silver which, from 
time to time, and at all times hereafter, shall be there 
gotten, had, or obtained, in lieu and satisfaction of all 
services, duties, fines, forfeitures, made or to be made, 



APPENDIX. 171 

claims, or demands whatsoever, to be to us, oiu' heirs, or 
successors, therefore or thereabout rendered, made, or paid ; 
any grant or clause in a late grant to the governor and com- 
pany of Connecticut colony, in America, to the contrary 
thereof in anywise notwithstanding; the aforesaid Paw- 
catuck river having been yielded, after much debate, for 
the fixed and certain bounds between these our said 
colonies, by the agents thereof, w^ho have also agi-eed, 
that the said Pawcatuck river shall also be called alias 
Norogansett, or Narragansett, river ; and, to prevent future 
disputes, that otherwise might arise thereby, for ever here- 
after shall be construed, deemed, and taken to be, the Narra- 
gansett river, in our late grant to Connecticut colony, 
mentioned as the easterly bounds of that colony. 

" And fui'ther, our will and pleasure is, that, in all matters 
of public controversies which may fall out between oi^r 
colony of Providence Plantations, and the rest of our 
colonies in New England, it shall and may be lawful to 
and for the governor and company of the said colony of 
Providence Plantations, to make theii- appeal therein to us, 
our heirs and successors, for redi-ess in such cases, within 
this our realm of England ; and that it shall be lawful to 
and for the inhabitants of the said colony of Providence 
Plantations, without let or molestation, to pass and repass 
with freedom, into and tlii'ough the rest of the English 
colonies, upon their la^vful and civil occasions, and to 
converse and hold commerce and trade with such of the 
inhabitants of om- other English colonies as shall be \^'illing 
to admit them thereunto, they behaving themselves peace- 
ably among them, any act, clause, or sentence, in any of the 
said colonies provided, or that shall be provided, to the con- 
trary in anywise notwithstanding. 

" And lastly, we do, for us, our heirs and successors, ordain 
and grant unto the said governor and company, and their 
successors, by these presents, that these our letters patent 
shall be firm, good, efiectual, and available, in all things in 
the law, to all intents, constructions, and pm-poses whatso- 
ever, according to our true intent and meaning herein be- 
fore declared, and shall be construed, reputed, and adjudged, 



172 APPENDIX. 

in all cases, most favourably on the behalf, and for the best 
benefit and behoof, of the said governor and company and 
their successors, although express mention of the true yearly 
value or certainty of the premises, or any of them, or of any 
other gifts or grants by us, or by any of our progenitors or 
predecessors, heretofore made to the said governor and com- 
pany of the English colony of Rhode Island and Providence 
Plantations, in the Narragansett Bay, New England, in 
America, in these presents is not made, or any statute, act, 
ordinance, provision, proclamation, or restriction, heretofore 
had, made, enacted, ordained, or provided, or any other 
matter, cause, or thing whatsoever, to the contrary thereof, 
in anywise notwithstanding. In witness whereof we have 
caused these om- letters to be made patent. Witness om-self 
at Westminster, the eighth day of July, in the fifteenth 
year of our reign. 

" By the king : 

" Howard." 



APPENDIX. 173 



No. III.— (P. 114.) 

The following is an abridgment of the genealogy of the 
Cromwell family, taken fi-om the "London Review," for 
March, 1772. 

This genealogy was extracted from Welsh chronicles, 
about the year 1602, to show the descent of Sir Henry 
Cromwell, who was then living. It commences in the 
person of Glothyau, fifth lord of Powes, who married Mor- 
peth, daughter and heiress of Edwin ap Tydwall, lord of 
Cardigan, who was descended from Cavedig, from whom 
the county of Cardigan took the name of Cavedigion. His 
son, Gwaith Voyd, was lord of Cardigan, Powes, Gwayte, 
and Gwaynesaye. He died about 1066. 

From Gwynstan ap Gwaith, second son of the above 
Gwaith Voyd, was lineally descended, through about thir- 
teen generations, or in about four hundred and forty years, 
Morgan Williams, who, in the reign of Henry VIII., mar- 
ried the sister of Thomas Cromwell. Tliis Morgan Williams 
had a son, Richard, who was knighted by Henry VIII., not 
by the name of Williams, but by the name of Cromwell, 
after his uncle, whose heir he became. This Sir Richard 
had a son, Henry, who was knighted by Queen Elizabeth, 
in 1563, and married Joan, daughter of Sir Ralph Warren, 
and had six sons and four daughters. The sons were, 
Oliver, Robert, Hemy, Richard, Pliilip, and Ralph ; Oliver, 
the Protector, was the only son of Robert, and born in the 
parish of St. John, in Huntingdon, April 25, 1599. 

The tradition in the family of Williams, of there being a 
relationship by blood with the Protector, may be true ; but 
it was, as will be perceived, quite remote. 



LONDON : 
MIALL AND COCKSHAW, PRINTERS, LUDGATS HILL. 



